India's batting great Sunil Gavaskar has slammed left arm pacer Arshdeep Singh for delivering four no-balls against Sri Lanka at Pune. Axar Patel's blistering 65 of 31 balls and Suryakumar Yadav's 51 of 36 balls went in vain as India lost to Sri Lanka by 16 runs in a high-scoring match at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium here on Thursday. India conceded seven no-balls and gave away plenty of runs through free hits. Arshdeep overstepped three times in a row in the second over of the innings, becoming the first Indian bowler to bowl a hat-trick of no-balls in T20Is. The umpire ruled the seamer's final ball of the over was a no-ball.
Arshdeep bowled only 2 overs, conceding 37 runs as Sri Lanka fought back to put 206 on the board in the first innings. “As a professional, you can’t be doing this. We often hear that today’s players say, things aren’t in our control. Not bowling no ball is in your control. What happens after you deliver the ball, what the batsman does, is another thing. Not bowling a no ball is definitely in your control,” said Gavaskar when he was on his commentary duty for Star Sports.
Unwanted record for Arshdeep Singh
The speedster created the record for bowling the most number of no-balls in a T20I match by an Indian bowler. All the extras and runs conceded in free hits turned out to be decisive in the end.
However, wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik spoke in support of Arshdeep. Taking to Twitter Karthik wrote,” You’ve got to feel for Arshdeep Singh, just lack of match practice. It’s never easy.”
