Hard numbers tell the story. Michael Bracewell and the debutant Jayden Lennox conceded 76 runs between them in 20 overs and took two wickets. Glenn Phillips, their third spin-bowling option, bowled three overs and gave away 13.
Compare this with India’s two frontline spinners. Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav accounted for 126 runs between them in 18 overs and removed just one opposition batter, on a sluggish Rajkot pitch. Kuldeep’s figures read 10-0-82-1.
Nitish Kumar Reddy was the sixth bowling option. His medium pace wasn’t effective and he bowled just two overs. In the injured Washington Sundar’s absence, Ayush Badoni was drafted into the squad before the second ODI. But the team management probably didn’t consider him good enough to be given a game straightaway. Did India miss a third spinner on this deck?
“You know, to bring Ayush into the squad at the very last minute with Washi going down in the game, we thought Nitish should be better suited on this track,” said Ryan ten Doeschate, India’s assistant coach, at the post-match press conference. “And obviously, looking at the way the New Zealand spinners bowled, we could have done with another spinner tonight. But whenever we’re putting teams together, the main message is it’s what we put out there, not who we put out there.”
Ten Doeschate admitted that the team could have played better with “the team we put out there today”.
For More Sports Related News: Follow RevSportz
