Ex-Pakistan cricketer Danish Kaneria has blamed Rishabh Pant's “poor” captaincy for Team India's defeat to South Africa in the first T20I of the five-match series in Delhi on Thursday. Danish Kaneria's comments come at a time when Rishabh Pant has already received flak for his tactics from both Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra.

The Indian cricket team made a blistering start in the contest as Ishan Kishan's whirlwind 76 off 48 balls helped them post an imposing 211/4 in the first innings. With more than 200 on the board at Arun Jaitley Stadium's slow pitch, the Indians were the favourites to seal their 13th consecutive win in T20Is but ended up losing the match with David Miller and Rassie van der Dussen taking the Proteas over the finishing line with their quickfire fifties.

After the match, Rishabh Pant acknowledged that the Indian bowlers had failed to hit the right areas and couldn't execute their plans. In nutshell, the Team India captain was blaming the bowlers for the defeat in the national capital.

“I think we had enough on the board but were off with our execution, but credit to the opposition. We thought the slower one was working when we were batting but it became easier in the second innings,” Pant said during the post-match presentation ceremony.

Danish Kaneria, however, put the onus of the loss on Rishabh Pant as he declared that he had not rotated his bowlers well and even looked out of ideas at times.

“India lost first T/20 against South Africa. Rishabh Pant leading the team in absence of KL Rahul as he is out of series due to injury, Pant lacked in captaincy defending 211,” Danish Kaneria said on the Koo App.

“Pant rotated the bowlers poorly bringing Chahal in power-play not good option when Axar better option and rotation of fast bowler overs and giving Hardik just one over. Miller form continues as he was amazing in IPL for Gujrat Titans for lifting the first trophy,” Danish Kaneria added.

Earlier, the great Zaheer Khan had also criticised Rishabh Pant's tactics. The former pacer of the Indian cricket team had questioned his decision to under-bowl Yuzvendra Chahal in the match. Instead of his full quota of 4 overs, Chahal only bowled 2.1 in the game after he went for plenty in his first over.

“I felt not using Chahal's full quota, on the hindsight, is definitely something which Rishabh will look at. Team management will have a conversation around it. You've seen Chahal having a tough day but having the ability to come back and give a breakthrough. Indian team required to bring the next batter in. So, it was a call that was in your hands,” Zaheer Khan told Cricbuzz.

“You can control who is going to bowl. In hindsight, the Indian team and Rishabh will try and analyze the game and see what they could've done differently. Maybe Axar's last over, which went for runs, gave Rishabh the signal that spin is not the option right now and he didn't look at that direction. But the ability of Chahal is greater than that,” the former Indian cricketer added.

“The 12 balls he could've bowled at a stage when Rassie and Miller had to go hard at bowlers… he could've created an opportunity there. If a wicket was taken at that stage, the game would've been different,” Zaheer Khan opined.

On the other hand, another former Indian cricketer Ashish Nehra wasn't just critical of Rishabh Pant. Nehra had harsh words for head coach Rahul Dravid as well. According to Ashish Nehra, Rahul Dravid should have been a bit proactive and should have sent a message to Rishabh Pant about giving the ball back to Yuzvendra Chahal.

“Rishabh Pant is a young captain, he will learn and hopefully he will get better. Now, if Dravid feels that Chahal should bowl an over, obviously a message can be sent. They have to keep things simple and be proactive.”

“It is very surprising to me that a bowler like him only bowled 2 overs today. He should have bowled to the van der Dussen-Miller pair, especially at the stage when South Africa were back in the chase. Rishabh Pant surely made a mistake over there. He also was frantic in the powerplay, using five bowlers for six overs,” Nehra said in a conversation with the same media outlet.

The second game between Team India and the Temba Bavuma-led South Africa will be played at Cuttack's Barabati Stadium on Sunday. While the Proteas will look to take a 2-0 lead in the series, India would want to put it back on an even keel.

But it will be interesting to see if Rishabh Pant would go with the same squad or will he make some changes, particularly in the pace department where the likes of Arshdeep Singh and Umran Malik are still waiting in the wings.