IPL 2020: Navdeep Saini leaves Gautam Gambhir embarrassed after the latter criticises Virat Kohli

Gautam Gambhir, the former Indian cricketer, was a tad surprised after Navdeep Saini was given the ball in the third over instead of Chris Morris. In the first over, Morris had conceded only three runs, not allowing Rahul Tripathi and Shubman Gill to pounce on him. In the second over, Virat Kohli, the RCB captain, handed the ball to Mohammed Siraj, who was making his comeback in the eleven.

Siraj responded with the wickets of Tripathi and Nitish Rana off consecutive deliveries. Gambhir wanted Morris to bowl the third, but it was Saini, who was given the charge. The former Indian cricketer slammed Kohli for removing Morris from the attack.

I don’t get the reason behind giving the ball to a new bowler: Gautam Gambhir

“The brilliant captaincy that Virat Kohli had shown by giving the new ball to Mohammed Siraj, the positive captaincy and a fine move that paid off but this move surprises you,” Gambhir was quoted as saying during live text commentary.

“I don’t get the reason behind giving the ball to a new bowler to bowl the third over after Chris Morris’ first over,” he added.

However, Saini didn’t disappoint as he got rid of Shubman in the second ball he bowled. The batsman went for an aggressive pull, but holed out to Morris, who was standing at mid-on. Overall, in three overs, Navdeep gave away 23 runs at an economy of 7.70. Morris, on the other hand, wasn’t disappointing, as he bowled a maiden over and returned with figures of 4-1-16-0.

As far as the game was concerned, apart from losing the toss, nothing went wrong for the Challengers. Siraj’s early strikes pushed the Knights on the backfoot right from the word go. KKR skipper Eoin Morgan scored 30 runs, but the Men in Gold and Purple were restricted to 84 for eight in their 20 overs.

Apart from the pacers, the spinners were also impressive as Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar had combined figures of 8-1-29-3. The run-chase wasn’t expected to be tough for the Challengers, who got over the line with 39 balls to spare. The win also took RCB to second in the points table.