“Below Average”: Arshdeep Singh faces backlash on social media despite India’s win over Ireland

Arshdeep Singh called out by fans after a below average bowling display against Ireland

New York: Arshdeep Singh had a mixed day in the office in India’s first 2024 T20 World Cup game against Ireland. After dismissing both the Irish openers in the same over, Arshdeep proved to be expensive in his next overs.

In his quota of 4 overs, the pacer ended up giving 35 runs and took 2 wickets. These are not bad figures per se but given how much help the New York pitch was providing particularly to the pacers, these numbers can be seen as expensive.

Arshdeep’s second over saw him give away 13 runs, including four wides. His last over was worse, as he conceded 16 runs, which significantly boosted the score of the struggling Ireland batting lineup. Thanks to these expensive overs, Ireland ended up reaching a score of 96, despite struggling at 50/8 at one point.

The Punjab Kings paceman drew mixed reactions from fans on social media, who were unimpressed with his bowling. Many felt that Arshdeep had not capitalized on his brilliant first over.

“Arshdeep just offers you a little more variety,” Sanjay Manjrekar had said on Star Sports ahead of the T20 World Cup.

It must be kept in mind that Arshdeep has been India’s highest wicket-taker in the past 12 months in T20Is and also took 19 wickets in IPL 2024 with the Punjab Kings.

India will be expecting Arshdeep to improve his economy rate as their next match in the T20 World Cup will be against arch-rivals, Pakistan where the left-handed pacer would be going head-to-head  against Pakistan’s own left-arm pacemen Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Amir.