Srinagar: Although Pakistan dominated the rain marred match against India in the ongoing Asia Cup 2023, the former India opener and legend Sunil Gavaskar has questioned tactics employed by Pakistan skipper Babar Azam.
According to Gavaskar, the questionable tactics by Babar Azam allowed India breather amd reach 266 run score before getting all out.
Earlier Shaheen Afridi first bamboozled Indian skipper Rohit Sharma. He then outsmarted Virat Kohli, who had just brought out his signature cover drive to highlight his form in the previous over.
Talking about the blockbuster India-Pakistan showdown, batting legend Gavaskar opined that the bowling changes of Babar didn’t make any sense to him.
“I think the bowling changes didn’t make any sense because if you have three bowlers, the pace bowlers have taken the early wickets, you want to keep at least one ongoing from one end. I know that you can’t really go through long spells, but one person could have been bowling from one end and Shadab or Nawaz from the other end,” Gavaskar told India Today.
Suggesting Babar clearly missed a trick in India’s Asia Cup opener, Gavaskar observed that Rohit and Co. managed to stage a fightback after a top-order collapse. Middle-order stars Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan smashed half-centuries to help India register a fighting total. Pandya and Kishan’s fifth-wicket stand was worth 138 runs off 141 balls.
“I mean India will be saying a big thank you because that’s what allowed the partnership to flourish because otherwise, if one of the pacers had taken just that one wicket between Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya, then maybe India would have struggled to reach even 175, 200,” Gavaskar added.