Shoaib Akhtar, a former fast bowler for Pakistan, expressed his extreme dissatisfaction with the match between India and Pakistan that took place on Sunday in Dubai during the 2022 Asia Cup. The Men in Blue triumphed in the nail-biting match with two balls to spare, earning themselves two important points in the process.
Even while there were a lot of exciting moments throughout the highly anticipated match, there were also a lot of places where they might have improved. Both sides were perhaps responsible for not having a strong grasp on the game for lengthy periods. This was evident in everything from a sluggish over-rate to a tentative approach with bat.
What did Shoaib Akhtar say about the match?
On his YouTube channel, Akhtar expressed his discontent with the choices that both sides made over the course of the match.
He said: “Both India and Pakistan did all in their power to come out on the losing end of the contest. Pandya was able to save the day for India even though they were close to achieving their goal. If Rizwan bats through 42 deliveries and scores 43 runs, what else could possibly take place? 19 dot balls faced by Pakistan during their powerplay. When you play that many dot balls, you are almost certain to get into some kind of difficulty.”
Pakistan was allowed to bat first, but it took them some time to get into their rhythm since the new-ball bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh bowled quite tightly. During the powerplay, the Men in Green were only able to lose two of their wickets while scoring 43 runs.
In the end, they were only able to put 147 runs up on the board, which India was able to comfortably chase down and they had five wickets in hand.
Both teams had a difficult task when it came time to choose their starting eleven. Dinesh Karthik was selected as India’s middle-order batsman when the team was forced to choose between Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik after the comeback of KL Rahul. Dinesh Karthik was ultimately selected.
The team captained by Babar Azam had to make some adjustments to their bowling strategy since Shaheen Afridi was not available. Naseem Shah was allowed to make his debut, while Shahnawaz Dahani was given the starting spot ahead of Hasan Ali.
