IND vs NZ | Bowlers today lack creativity to tackle dire situations, feels Zaheer Khan

The first T20 between India and New Zealand in Auckland was an open slaughter of each and every bowler. With the size of the ground to their disadvantage, none of the bowlers on either side had an economy under 7 with as many as four bowlers with an economy rate more than 12.

The numbers are a clear indicator of the state of the game and former India tearaway Zaheer Khan voiced his concern over the same. Zaheer pointed out that bowlers are not analysing the game on the field and hence are lacking the creativity to turn the tide.

“Bowlers need to figure out some kind of a way when things are not in their favour. I think it’s moving towards when conditions are suiting batting the batsmen are dominating and when the conditions are suiting bowling the bowlers are dominating,” said the 41-year-old on Cricbuzz Live.

“That balance in between or that creativity is something which is not able to…… we are actually seeing that trend where players are analysing the match post match, they are not really finding solutions in the game time," he added.

Renowned as the “swing king of India”, Zaheer shared that bowlers didn’t even try to change their angle, the most basic of the variations, which when used cleverly can deliver miraculous results. The 41-year-old was critical of the Kiwi bowlers who failed to learn from the mistakes of the Indian bowlers and marched on into the slaughter.

“So being pro active, trying something different (is missing). We are not seeing angle change, something a bowler tries in the game. We see someone going around the wicket and trying something. 

“It’s like we saw the same thing happen in the first 20 overs and the same thing continued in the second innings while the New Zealand bowlers had time to ponder about it,” Zaheer signed off.