Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad has launched a seething attack on Hardik Pandya and Co after the West Indies took a 2-0 lead in the ongoing five-match T20I series. Prasad, who noted India's below-par performances in white-ball cricket in the recent past a week ago, continued from where he left off saying that there is no point brushing aside the lack of results from the Men in Blue in both ODIs and T20Is while adding that the intensity and hunger to win has to be far greater than what he saw on the field.
Prasad made his point by referring to the instance in the match when leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal had broken open the game with twin strikes in the 16th over of the innings. After which, skipper Hardik Pandya didn't give an over to Chahal as he hoped that his pacers Arshdeep Singh and Mukesh Kumar would do the job in the 18th and the 19th over, which wasn't to be as the pair of Alzarri Joseph and Akeal Hosein scored 26 runs in the last four overs to win the game for their side.
Taking to Twitter (X), Prasad wrote, "Very very ordinary. No point in brushing it aside. After the 2007 T20 World Cup, IPL started and we haven’t won a T20 World Cup in 7 attempts since, making only 1 finals. The intensity and hunger to win needs to be far more . Yesterday after Yuzi took 2 wkts in the 16th, cont...
"And Yuzi got India back into the game in what was his third over and West Indies 8th down and he didn’t bowl again and No 9 and 10 for WI found the pacers easy to handle. Should be smarter at these moments then just doing textbook stuff," he further added.
India are on the verge of a series defeat against West Indies in T20Is, which will be their first since 2016 and a remarkable turnaround is needed in Guyana in the third T20I on Tuesday, August 8.
