Former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif bluntly criticised the bowling coach and captain following the defeat against New Zealand in the fourth T20I. The Men in Blue suffered an 87-run loss in Auckland.
They conceded in excess of 250 runs as New Zealand posted 259/7 after batting first. Mohammad Kaif held bowling coach Morne Morkel and captain Shreyas Iyer responsible for the constant disappointing performances with the ball. He added that Shreyas must learn to utilise and rotate bowlers better.
“I want to ask Morne Morkel what is going on. It is the responsibility of the bowling coach to answer. The bowling coach and captain are responsible. Shreyas Iyer also needs to learn things. Nitish is not your complete bowler. When the last five overs are left, Arshdeep only has one over remaining. Bhuvneshwar has only one left. You cannot give the 20th over to Nitish. You need to find ways to bowl him in the middle. He is your fifth or sixth bowler, not a wicket-taking bowler,” he said in a video on his YouTube channel.
Talking further about captaincy, Mohammad Kaif pointed out that Shreyas has lacked strategy and has not made apt bowling changes, highlighting the pattern not just for India but also when he captained the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in IPL 2026.
“Shreyas Iyer has lacked a bit in bowling changes and strategy. And I am not saying this just after one loss. This has been happening for a while now, and it is the same pattern. Even when he was leading in the IPL this time, PBKS gave more than 200 runs nine times. That is a big number. There is a need for a lot of work to be done here too.”
Chasing 260, India were restricted to 172/9, as the Kiwis completely outplayed the visitors with both bat and ball. Nonetheless, the Men in Blue are 3-1 ahead in the five-match series.
Mohammad Kaif highlights major concern for Team India
Mohammad Kaif expressed his concern about India conceding over 200 runs consistently in recent times. He reckoned that the team would have to work on the same and not expect the batters to chase big totals all the time. In fact, he added that the team had been winning in the last few games only due to the batting unit’s ability to chase totals in excess of 200.
“It has become a habit that 200- 250 is normal. We need to change this. It is a bad habit. Our batting is so good that we chase 200. This is happening a lot of times now. It happened against the West Indies as well, and this is worrying now. Whatever you are winning, it is because of your batters. A lot of work needs to be done with the bowling. You may have won the series, but if you look deeper, it was mostly because of batting dominance. You cannot chase 200-250 every time, and this loss was always coming,” he said.
Mohammad Kaif explained that totals of 200 were not easy either. However, he credited the batting unit for instilling the belief that they could chase down 200, which never made it feel like India are out of the game.
“Even if you know batting is your strength and you think you can chase 200, you never think of chasing 250. It does not happen. 200 is also big. But because our batters are so good, it feels like we can do it.”
India chased 226 runs in the first T20I against New Zealand, 181 in the second, and 199 in the third. However, they felt the pressure and fell short while chasing 260.
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Edited by Rishab Vm
