India vs West Indies: Abhinav Mukund 'baffled' by Hardik Pandya not using Yuzvendra Chahal

Former India batter Abhinav Mukund was left ‘baffled’ by Hardik Pandya’s decision to return to Arshdeep Singh and not use Yuzvendra Chahal for one final over in the second T20I against West Indies at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.

Defending a below-bar 152 to go level in the series, West Indies were 126/4 after Nicholas Pooran’s exploits took them from a precarious position. However, a couple of quick wickets from Chahal of Shimron Hetmyer and Jason Holder in three balls from his third over shifted the momentum.

Opinion | Where did things go wrong for India in second T20I?

This helped reduce West Indies to 129/8 in 16 overs with India suddenly in command. However, skipper Pandya went back to seamers Arshdeep Singh and Mukesh Kumar for 18th and 19th overs, resulting in West Indies chasing the total down in 18.5 overs.

In post-match coverage, Mukund said despite left-hander Akeal Hosein at the crease, Chahal should have been persisted with.

“I can’t get an explanation for it because 10 times out of 10 you would have gone with another over from Chahal and tried to close out the game there, especially with Alzarri Joseph there. I understand the left hander is still there, but you got Hetmyer out in the previous over, bowling a full one. You have the bigger boundary to deal with,” said Mukund on JioCinema.

He added, “I was just a bit baffled by that decision to go back to Arshdeep because he is your strike bowler. If you wanted to bowl him, you could have had him bowl the 19th, left the last over to Mukesh or even brought Arshdeep for the final over, depending on the number of runs.”

Another expert, Robin Uthappa, said he was ‘mind-blown’ by the decision. “I have one expression – one Gen-Z expression for this moment – ‘poof’ and not in a nice way. I am just mind-blown by how when a guy gets you three wickets in an over (Chahal took two and one was a run-out) essentially you don’t bring him back for another one and kind of close the game completely,” he said on JioCinema.

“The likes of Alzarri Joseph are not going to contend with the experience and class of a Yuzi Chahal. He knows how to bowl to these lower-order batsmen, he know how to get them out. And Akeal Hosein is not gonna take him on, not at that point with three overs to go. He would have backed himself with two overs to go perhaps, not three overs to go. So, you knew there was an error in judgement there.”

The defeat means India have lost consecutive T20Is against West Indies for the first time since 2016.

India had clinched the Test and ODI series 1-0 and 2-1 but now trail the T20Is 0-2 with three matches to go.