Gautam Gambhir, Suryakumar Yadav Questioned Over T20 World Cup Tactic: "Didn't Let Him Do That"

Former Indian cricket team batter Aakash Chopra was not pleased with the team management's decision to not hand Varun Chakravarthy his full quota of overs during the ongoing T20 World Cup. Chopra questioned the decision taken by skipper Suryakumar Yadav to bowl Chakravarthy for the complete four overs just once during the group stage. During India's match against Netherlands, Varun registered figures of 3/14 in 3 overs as his team won the game by 17 runs. During his analysis video on YouTube, Chopra said that the spinner would have taken at least one five-wicket haul if he was given his full quota of overs and questioned the captaincy choices made by Suryakumar Yadav.

"Why are you not getting Varun Chakaravarthy to bowl his overs? You are not giving him all his overs. You have done it only once, against USA, because you used only five bowlers. Do you do that with any batter? Do you ask them to come out if they are playing well and have scored 50-60 runs?" he said.

"You don't do that. They can play even 60 balls. A bowler can't bowl more than 24 balls, and you are not letting him bowl those 24 either. He would have taken at least one five-wicket haul, but you didn't let him do it. You didn't play him against New Zealand as well. If a batter needs rhythm, a bowler also needs that," added.

Chakravarthy earned the Impact Player award in the Indian dressing room for his impactful bowling spell of 3/14 in three overs during the India vs Netherlands T20 World Cup 2026 group-stage match.

India won the match by 17 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.

Against the Netherlands, Chakravarthy claimed the wickets of Max O'Dowd, Colin Ackermann and dismissed Aryan Dutt for a golden duck, helping India restrict the Netherlands at 176/7 in 20 overs, 17 runs short of India's target of 194 runs.

Adrian Le Roux, Team India's strength and conditioning coach, presented Varun Chakravarthy with the medal. After winning the medal, the Indian spinner said, "The real tournament starts with the next match. We have to get ready for that."

Notably, with the win over the Netherlands, India made it four wins in four matches in the group stage and heads into the Super Eight with winning momentum. The Netherlands bow out of the tournament with a win and three losses, two of them being close losses against India and Pakistan.

(With agency inputs)

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Netherlands Aakash Chopra Varun Chakaravarthy T20 World Cup 2026 Suryakumar Yadav Gautam Gambhir Cricket