Former Indian cricketer and RCB head coach, Sanjay Bangar was unimpressed with the batting position of wicket-keeper batter, Dinesh Karthik, in the second T20I against South Africa on Sunday.
India managed to put up just 148 on the board in their first innings in Cuttack, which the Proteas chased down comfortably with 4 wickets to spare. Karthik was sent below Axar Patel in the batting order, which left Bangar confused.
“You have to take a lot of decisions in T20 cricket. No player has an ideal situation when he can come in to bat. You have to get out of your comfort zone sometimes. Karthik should think, ‘I’m an experienced player and capable of batting before the 15th over too’.”
“For RCB, he had come in to bat early in the 13th over and lot of spin was used against him. We haven’t seen him doing that with the Indian team so far. He definitely should have promoted up the order,” Bangar told Star Sports.
“We can try out Arshdeep in place of Avesh Khan” – Sanjay Bangar
Bangar also insisted on using all the options available to India in the remaining three games. He felt Ravi Bishnoi could act as the second leg-spinner while the impressive Arshdeep Singh could also be given a spot in place of Avesh Khan.
“One option can be to play Bishnoi. If two wrist-spinners can give wickets to the Indian team in the middle overs, then they can break the momentum slightly. We have a lot of options for the first six overs, so we can try out Arshdeep in place of Avesh Khan,” he also mentioned.
India now trails 0-2 in the 5-match series and will have to turn it around quickly if they want to stay alive in the series.
