The strategy of using Jasprit Bumrah is beyond comprehension: Steve Smith – Dainik Savera Times

Hyderabad: Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya’s decision of not giving more than one over to Jasprit Bumrah till the 13th over of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)’s innings during the IPL 2024 match on Wednesday night is being criticized from all sides. The host team scored 277/3, which is the highest score in the history of IPL. After bowling one over in the power-play, Bumrah was again put into attack in the 13th over. By this time, Sunrisers had posted a strong total of 173-3 on the scoreboard, putting them in a strong position to accelerate their scoring.

Bumrah completed his four-over quota by conceding 36 runs, and emerged as the most economical bowler for MI with an economy rate of 9 runs per over. Talking about Pandya’s tactics, Australian cricketer Steve Smith said that he was surprised by the bowling changes for MI in the match. Smith said, ‘I was surprised by some changes in his bowling in the first innings for Mumbai. In the fourth over bowled by Bumrah, he gave away 5 runs and then we did not see him again until the 13th over, when they were on 173 runs. All the damage was done, you need your best bowler to come back and take some wickets in that period and I think by the time they brought him back in the 13th over the opportunity was gone.

Smith further said that if Bumrah had been included in the attack first, Hyderabad would have been restricted to 240. ‘When the ball is turning like that, you have to get your best bowler back earlier than you want. It’s just about adapting as you go and by the 15th, 16th over I would have had Bumrah bowling all the way, tried to take a few wickets, if he takes wickets, you slow down the pace anyway. If the guy is batting at the end, it doesn’t matter who is bowling, we saw that with Bumrah in the last two overs and he also got hit in his last two overs.

‘So if he had come back earlier and taken some risks, things would have been really different and he got 277 runs and could have got them down to 240 and maybe they would have chased them down, so I was just surprised that he Only 1 over was bowled till the 13th over.” Local player Tilak Verma played a brilliant inning of 64 runs in 34 balls in the run chase, but his efforts went in vain as Sunrisers Hyderabad registered a 31-run win over Mumbai Indians. Smith said, ‘It was an incredibly difficult wicket, the most runs we have seen so far in a T20 match, so you have to give some credit to the batsmen as well. I think he did some things wrong. I mean you can’t make one of the best bowlers in the world bowl one over.

Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan also did not shy away from criticizing Pandya’s captaincy and his decision to keep Bumrah away from the attack when MI was in a difficult position. Pathan wrote on Twitter, ‘Hardaki Pandya’s captaincy has been at least normal. When the bowlers were being beaten, it was beyond my understanding to keep Bumrah away for a long time. He also criticized Hardik’s batting strike rate of 120 during the chase. Pathan wrote in another post on X, ‘If the entire team is playing with a strike rate of 200, then the captain cannot bat with a strike rate of 120.’