New Delhi : Former captain Sunil Gavaskar feels India got a taste of their own medicine in the World Twenty20 loss to New Zealand and the hosts should be prepared to handle quality spin if they want to dish out rank turners for their rivals.
India lost to New Zealand by 47 runs on the spinner- friendly wicket here where the opposition tweakers snared 9 out of 10 wickets.
“If you are giving this medicine (spinning track) to opposition, then you should be able to take it yourself. We need to accept that India have struggled against quality spin bowling. If they would have won, there would not have been any talk on the pitch,” Gavaskar told NDTV.
The Nagpur pitch got an official warning from ICC last November when a Test match between India and South Africa finished in two and half days with some of the deliveries turning square.
The legend feels that after losing the first match, India have made it very difficult for themselves not only in terms of playing arch-rivals Pakistan in the next game but also the fact that another defeat will mean ouster from the tournament.
“Whether you win or lose, the next game against Pakistan is a must-win game. Also if you lose, the you are out of the tournament. They have struggled against New Zealand, they might find it even tougher against Pakistan, if this is the kind of pitches they want,” Gavaskar said.
While he felt that Indians seemed “over-confident”, the Black Caps needed to be lauded for their team combination. “India lost because they were over-confident but the NZ think-tank needs to be credited for picking three spinners for this match,” he said.
New Zealand played left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner, who got Man of the Match award for his four-wicket haul, while leg-spinner Ish Sodhi got 3 wickets.
Dhoni as well rued batting failure, “There were quite a few soft dismissals and there was no partnership at all. We all knew that the wicket was slightly on the slower side. It was the batting department that could have done better. We kept losing wickets at every alternate over. Once the top order gets out, it becomes more difficult for the batsmen to come in to score runs. It is important to get a partnership going at that stage so that it gives that calmness in the dressing room and the batsmen who are coming afterwards. It was to some extent a lack of application.”
