‘He’s not Umran Malik, he’s not Mohammed Siraj’: Gautam Gambhir lashes out at Arshdeep ahead of 3rd T20I vs NZ

India are all set to lock horns with New Zealand in the third and final T20I of the series on Wednesday and ahead of the series decider, former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir has advised pacer Arshdeep Singh to stick with basics in order to avoid bowling no-balls.

Lately, Arshdeep has come under the scanner for bowling no balls. Earlier, this month, the youngster went on to deliver five no-balls in a T20I match against Sri Lanka, making him the first Indian to achieve this bizarre feat. Previously, the record was held by Ishant Sharma, who had bowled three no-balls in a single T20I.

The same was the case in the first T20I against New Zealand during which Arshdeep conceded 27 runs in the final over of their innings. His first delivery of the 20^th over was a no-ball that went for a six. The next delivery, a free-hit, was smashed for a maximum by Daryl Mitchell. Hence, Arshdeep gave away 13 runs on just one legal delivery and that gave momentum to the Kiwis, who managed to post a match-winning total of 176/6 in 20 overs at Ranchi.

However, Arshdeep bounced back in the second T20I and registered figures of 2/7, but Gambhir believes that bowling no-balls is ‘unacceptable’.

“I think. these numbers are fine, it can go south and it can go north. But the most important thing is you can’t afford to bowl those no-balls. That is absolutely unacceptable, especially at this level, and it can come back to hurt you and the team big time,” Gambhir told Star Sports.

“And that is exactly what happened in the previous game. Just keep the basics right. See, World Cup conditions are completely different from what you normally get back home. In Australia, it was swinging and it was still bouncing, decent carry as well with the new ball. But when you play at the sub-continent, these are flat wickets,” he added.

Gambhir also asserted that Arshdeep needs to work on variations as he lacks a lethal pace like Umran Malik and Mohammed Siraj.

“You gonna have something different up your sleeves whether it’s a slower one or a slower bouncer. Some kind of variation. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the speed to actually rattle the batsmen. So he’s got to develop some variation. He is not Umran Malik, he’s not Mohammed Siraj. So one thing he needs to do is probably try and keep it very simple and sort his no balls out which is equally important,” Gambhir said.

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