India vs Australia 2018: 3 things India could have done differently in the T20Is

#3 Umesh Yadav or Yuzvendra Chahal in place of Khaleel Ahmed

Umesh Yadav could have been tried ahead of the Test series

Khaleel Ahmed had a dream start to his first overseas tour to Australia when he dismissed Short off his very first ball Down Under. Ahmed failed to capitalize on the good start as his next over went for 21 runs with 3 sixes coming off the bat of Chris Lynn. Khaleel finished with figures of 1 for 42 in 3 overs.

At Melbourne, Kohli gave Khaleel the new ball and he got the wickets of Chris Lynn and Short in his first 3 overs. Kohli could have bowled him out at that stage. But for some strange reasons, Kohli held him back and Khaleel’s last over went for 19 runs.

In hindsight, after Khaleel’s poor performance in the first match at Brisbane, Chahal should have taken his place as Krunal Pandya was in the team as an all-rounder. Chahal is a wicket-taking bowler for India in the middle-overs and is also an effective bowler in the powerplay as well as at the death.

However, the overcast conditions at Melbourne warranted the third seamer in the team instead of a third spinner. The only other option left in the squad was Umesh Yadav who could have relished the favourable conditions at Melbourne.

Umesh Yadav is in the Test squad and he should have got a look-in going into the Test matches. But the team management didn’t want to try anything different, that could have resulted in long-term benefits. Team India continued with Khaleel in the entire series despite his inconsistency.

To sum up and to be fair to India, they could have won the T20I series against Australia by a margin of 2-1. More than the victory, India missed an opportunity to experiment something different in alien conditions. The very fact that India played the same playing XI for all the three matches suggested that the team might not have been willing to think out of the box.