Former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra questioned Rishabh Pant’s captaincy in the first T20I, saying that he was surprised to see Yuzvendra Chahal bowling only two overs on Thursday.
Chahal, the purple cap winner of IPL 2022, bowled just 13 deliveries and leaked 26 runs.
“Rishabh Pant is a young captain, he will learn and hopefully he will get better. Now, if Dravid feels that Chahal should bowl an over, obviously a message can be sent. They have to keep things simple and be proactive.”
“It is very surprising to me that a bowler like him only bowled 2 overs today. He should have bowled to the van der Dussen-Miller pair, especially at the stage when South Africa were back in the chase. Rishabh Pant surely made a mistake over there. He also was frantic in the powerplay, using five bowlers for six overs,” Nehra said.
“He only bowled 2 overs. Sometimes teams hold back leg spinners because there is a left-hander batting. It is important to keep a wicket-taking option in the middle overs. If you have to stop a top-quality International batter, you will have to take his wicket, defensive bowling won’t work.”
