Anshul Kamboj had a day to forget at the Ekana Stadium against the Lucknow Super Giants. The CSK pacer came in as a bowler who was competing with Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the purple cap, but looked very ordinary in his efforts against LSG, conceding 63 runs off just 16 balls.
LSG vs CSK, IPL 2026: Highlights | Scorecard
This included two separate instances where the pacer was hit for four consecutive sixes, first by Mitchell Marsh and then by Nicholas Pooran. Speaking on his YouTube channel, former India captain and selector, Kris Srikkanth pointed out the exact moment where Kamboj lost the plot.
Srikkanth slammed the planning of Kamboj for trying to bowl a short delivery against Marsh. He then said by the third ball of the over, the CSK pacer looked spooked and fear had crept into his mind and kept making the same mistake again and again.
“What did he bowl first ball? A short-of-a-length delivery. Against Australians, if you bowl short, they’ll punish you badly. Marsh smashed that first ball over covers for six. Remember that shot? After that, Kamboj kept bowling short, trying to get bounce, and Marsh pulled him over square leg for another six.”
“From the third ball onwards, if you watch the slow-motion replay carefully, you can notice it in Kamboj’s run-up itself. He got scared after those first two sixes. The fear crept in immediately, and from there he kept bowling shorter and shorter,” said Srikkanth.
WHAT CSK NEEDED TO DO
Srikkanth agreed with the fact that Kamboj shouldn’t have bowled at that time and CSK should have persisted with Mukul Choudhary and Spencer Johnson, who looked impressive early on in the match.
The former India selector said that CSK should continued bowling good and Test match lengths and continued with the left-arm pace duo.
“Look at Spencer Johnson — even he only got hit in the final over. But Kamboj’s figures? 2.4 overs, 63 runs. That’s 63 runs in just 16 balls. On average, he was conceding almost four runs per ball. Compare that with Mukesh Choudhary, who bowled well despite the assault happening at the other end. He finished with 3 overs, 24 runs and a wicket.”
“So what CSK should have done was simple: continue bowling good lengths and Test-match lengths with Spencer Johnson and Mukesh,” said Srikkanth.
Despite the loss, CSK remains in the playoff hunt but will need luck to go their way in the next two games.
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