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Kevin Pietersen felt India should have sent Dhurv Jurel earlier since he’s an accomplished batter.
Dhruv Jurel managed 2 off 4. (BCCI Photo)
India’s strategy to stick with left-right combination in their batting order during the third T20I against England has come under scrutiny. Despite being a specialised batter, Dhruv Jurel was sent at no. 8 following the allrounder trio of Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar and Axar Patel. The decision didn’t go down well with Kevin Pietersen.
Pietersen says that he has observed the same problem with the Durban Super Giants in the ongoing SA20.
In that case, experienced batters like Quinton de Kock and Heinrich Klaasen were pushed down the order which, according to Pietersen, perhaps impacted the team’s overall performance.
“I’m someone who believes your best batters should bat at the top of the order. I was in South Africa last week, and the Durban Super Giants were having an absolute shocker of a tournament. But Quinton de Kock was batting at 3 or 4, and Heinrich Klaasen was batting at 6 or 7. I even approached these guys and asked, ‘Why are you doing this?’” Pietersen said on Star Sports.
As per the England batting legend, the “same thing happened” with India in Rajkot. He felt the home side chose to drop Jurel to the lower order to maintain the strategy of a “left-hand-right-hand batting combination”.
“A guy like Dhruv Jurel, who is a very good and accomplished batter, is being dropped down the order. Hardik is struggling a little, and there wasn’t that much pressure on these batters to come out and score at 10 runs per over,” Pietersen said.
After Tilak Varma returned to the pavilion in the 8th over, Sundar, who struggled a lot while negotiating with the English bowling unit, was sent in instead of Jurel.
He managed only six runs off five deliveries before falling victim to Jamie Overton.
After Sundar’s dismissal, Axar came in to bat to join Pandya.
The duo was unable to produce anything significant. Axar scored 15, while Pandya played a 40-run knock before losing his wicket in the penultimate over.
Jurel followed Axar in the order but when he got the opportunity, the game had slipped away from India.
- Location :
Rajkot, India, India
