Former Indian middle-order batter Ajinkya Rahane, who recently retired from all forms of the game, has reckoned that the young pacer Mayank Yadav bowled with injury risk in mind in the first T20I against the West Indies, which India won by eight wickets on Tuesday, October 6.
Mayank looked wayward with his lines and lengths in the opening T20I of the five-match series as he conceded 40 runs in his full quota of four overs despite picking up a wicket. While the pacer made his debut in 2024, recurring injuries have kept him out of the national selection for almost two years.
“There is something going on in his mind about the injuries he has had. That’s why I felt the lack of pace and the bowling of a lot of slower balls. No one wants to get injured again,” Rahane said on Cricbuzz.
On the other hand, former Indian keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik, who was also part of the same conversation, expressed his disappointment over Mayank not trusting his stock deliveries and instead going for slower ones.
“The fact is, when he started in the IPL and got picked in the Indian team, he was bowling a lot more over 150. He seemed to trust his slower one more than his stock delivery of good length or a bumper today. That’s not a great thing, to be fair. His performance was nothing earth-shattering and what I would like to see is definitely more rhythm and confidence in hitting the lengths with the new ball,” Dinesh Karthi said.
In the first T20I, West Indies was tasked with batting first, and they got all out for 171 runs in 19.1 overs. Shai Hope (52) and Sherfane Rutherford (56) shone, but Naman Dhir picked up a three-wicket haul in the first innings.
In the second innings, India crossed the winning line in just 14.4 overs with eight wickets in hand. Captain Shreyas Iyer was the top batter as he scored an unbeaten 102 off 43 with 10 fours and six sixes to take the hosts over the line.
