Aakash Chopra picks interesting aspect of Shreyas Iyer's captaincy amid NZ vs IND 2026 T20Is

Former India opener Aakash Chopra is intrigued by Shreyas Iyer's decision to bowl Nitish Kumar Reddy at the death instead of Arshdeep Singh or Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Chopra stated that the move might be part of a long-term strategy.

India beat New Zealand by six wickets in Wellington on Tuesday, October 27 in the third T20I of the five-match series. Sent into bat, the Black Caps posted 198-3 on the board, a total the Men in Blue chased down in just 13.2 overs.

During New Zealand's innings, Reddy bowled the 19th over. Arshdeep and Bhuvneshwar finished their quota before him, bowling the 17th and 18th overs, respectively. During a discussion on Cricinfo, Chopra opened up on Shreyas' interesting captaincy tactic and said:

"One thing that I'm finding it very interesting with Shreyas Iyer as a captain is that he is finishing off Bhuvneshwar Kumar around the 15th, 16th over, and Arshdeep by the 18th over. So that is becoming a bit of a trend. Now, there could be a slightly long-term philosophy behind it that I want to try Nitish Kumar Reddy in the 19th or the 20th. Reasons best known to him.

"Again, he's not done a poor job. But the fact is, if you have Bhuvneshwar and you've got Arshdeep Singh, your logical ideal choices are those two bowling the last two overs, or at least the last three overs should be split between these two plus Prince Yadav."

Reddy finished with figures of 1-38 from four overs in Wellington, getting the wicket of Finn Allen. Arshdeep claimed 1-33 in his four overs, while Bhuvneshwar and Prince went wicketless, conceding 40 and 44 runs, respectively.

"Most of the bowlers were quite okay" - Chopra on India's performance in NZ vs IND 2026 T20Is

At the halfway stage of the game, a number of experts felt that India had conceded a few runs too many. There was some assistance in the surface for the bowlers. Chopra, himself, had tweeted that 170-plus could be tough to chase. However, in hindsight, he opined that India's bowlers had done reasonably well. He stated:

"At that sixth over mark, we felt that New Zealand has actually done well. I think 58 for one or something like that. But, India did recover. And most of the bowlers were quite okay. Now, 10 an over is also a new normal because everybody has gone in a double digit economy barring Arshdeep Singh. So that's the story of almost every T20 game these days."

Having clinched the five-match series 3-0, India will now face New Zealand at the Eden Park in Auckland on October 30 in the fourth T20I.

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