3 Instances when Indian bowling struggled against minnows

Indian team bowling has always been its weakest link, especially in the limited-overs formats and often it has been the batting that has won the team games against big teams and often many times against minnows as well. 

In the recent Asia Cup 2023 match against Nepal, India which was playing its maiden ODI against the neighbors, had them by the sword at one stage. After India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bowl first, it was expected that Nepal would be shot out pretty quickly.

Opener Aasif Sheikh made 58 and Gulsan Jha made 23, with Dipendra Singh Airee making 29 runs, but Nepal was in trouble at 194/7. Then Sompal Kami hammered 48 runs in 56 balls, enabling Nepal to make 230 runs in 48.2 overs.

Indian bowlers failed to finish out a minnow side like Nepal, though Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja picked three wickets each.

Here we look at three similar instances when the Indian bowling unit failed against a minnow side and even ended up on the losing side.

Check out the 3 Instances When Indian Bowling Struggled Against Minnows:

1.India vs. Hong Kong, Asia Cup 2018

The match was part of the Asia Cup 2018 tournament, which was played in Dubai. The match was seen as a David vs. Goliath encounter as India had made short work of Pakistan in their group and was on a role. 

India was asked to bat first by Hong Kong captain Anshuman Rath and the Men in Blue posted 285/7 with Shikhar Dhawan hammering 127 runs. Ambati Rayudu made 60, while Dinesh Karthik (33) and Kedar Jadhav (27*) contributed to the final total as well.

Many expected the experienced bowling lineup of the Indian team to steamroll the Hong Kong batting. But what happened next was a total surprise. The Hong Kong openers Nizakat Khan and Anshuman Rath took the attack to Indian bowlers featuring Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, and the two spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, respectively.

Nizakat Khan made 92 runs and Rath made 73, as the duo added 174 runs for the first wicket in 34 overs and many thought that an upset was on the cards.

However, the two batters fell within one over of each other and then the Indian bowlers managed to keep Hong Kong to 259/8 and barely managed a win by 26 runs. It was a total failure of Indian bowlers who took the opposition batting lightly on a batter-friendly wicket.