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Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar explained the reasons behind Indian batters’ hesitant approach against New Zealand in their second game of T20 World Cup 2021. Gavaskar connected the dots between the performances of batters in the league stage of Indian Premier League (IPL) compared to knockouts.
“I'll say that there is a big difference between knockout and league matches. Take IPL's example, every player knows he has 14 matches and he can do anything there. They play their natural game without any pressure. When these batters playing in IPL knockouts, they play very cautiously and worry about losing their wicket,” the 72-year-old said.
“That's what happened in the New Zealand game. In the previous match, Pakistan bowlers bowled well and same happened against New Zealand but the hesitation we saw in last night's match was because it was a virtual knockout match,” the legendary batter added.
Gavaskar has not been impressed with India’s mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy who is yet to pick up his maiden T20 World Cup wicket. He feels that Chakravarthy did not poorly but had no wickets to his name either. Also, the way their batting is performing is the reason behind not playing three spinners.
He was also disappointed with the way India have lost their two matches without putting up a decent fight.
“When India lost to Pakistan, people were very sad but they were hoping that India will win against New Zealand and the remaining three matches to reach semi-final,” he described the mood of Indian fans in Dubai.
However, he still feels India have a chance to make it to the semi-final given the unexpected nature of the game.
“The expectations are still there. Anything can happen in cricket. But last night's defeat was a big loss. Even against Pakistan we lost the match with 13 balls remaining and Pakistan did not lose a single wicket. The one against New Zealand is a big loss too and because of it there are so many disappointed Indian cricket lovers in Dubai,” a hopeful Gavaskar said.
