‘Can’t understand the captaincy to be honest’ – Gautam Gambhir critical of Virat Kohli after India’s back-to-back losses against Australia

Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir slammed national captain Virat Kohli after India conceded an unassailable 2-0 lead to Australia in the three-match ODI series. On Sunday, November 29, the Men in Blue lost to Aaron Finch’s Aussies by 51 runs at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground. Chasing a mammoth target of 390, the visiting team always found themselves behind the 8-ball.

In the end, the required rate kept climbing and eventually went out of India’s radar. Gambhir was unhappy for the fact that Kohli didn’t bowl his premier bowlers for longer spells, especially in the powerplay when Finch and David Warner were going all guns blazing.

I probably can’t even explain that captaincy, says Gautam Gambhir

“I can’t understand the captaincy, to be honest. We kept talking about how important is to take wickets upfront if we have to stop this kind of batting line-up and then you make your premier bowler bowl two overs. Normally, in a One Day game probably there are three spells of 4-3-3 overs. Or probably the maximum is four overs,” Gambhir was quoted as saying in ESPNcricinfo.

“But if you stop your premier fast bowler just by bowling two overs upfront with the news, I can’t understand that kind of captaincy. I probably can’t even explain that captaincy. It is not T20 cricket. I probably can’t understand the reason to be honest because that was poor captaincy,” he stated.

During the first two matches, when the specialist bowlers were being carted all around the park, India strained to find a sixth bowling option. In the second ODI, as a desperate measure, Hardik Pandya returned to bowl and picked up the wicket of Steve Smith, who scored a century. Even Mayank Agarwal was used for one over.

Gambhir didn’t miss out on saying that India missed the additional bowler badly. “They could have given someone like Washington Sundar or Shivam Dube or whoever was there in the squad to play the next game and see how they go into the one-day format,” Gambhir added.

The third and final ODI is scheduled to be played on Wednesday, December 2 at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. The 50-overs matches will be followed by three T20Is and four Test matches.