According to Ramiz Raja, the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the surprising elimination of India from the Asia Cup 2022 in the Super 4 stage was because they made an excessive number of substitutions in their squad. He also said that Pakistan was successful in the tournament by winning games because they handled certain scenarios according to a certain “winning formula.”
Pakistan’s performance in the Asia Cup started with a defeat at the hands of India in Group A. They secured their spot in the Super 4 with a victory in their next group match against Hong Kong. They played India once again in the opening match of the Super 4, which was a victory by five wickets for them. After that, they secured their position in the championship match by prevailing against Afghanistan. On the other hand, India was defeated by Pakistan and Sri Lanka in their first two Super 4 matches, but they were victorious over Afghanistan in the match which counted for nothing.
What did Ramiz Raza say?
In the Hindustan Times, Raja was cited as stating something along the lines of, “You have seen the team’s (Pakistan) rating; the results are also obvious. People have been asking me why I am playing the same combination, and if we compare the teams of India and Pakistan, we can see that they are quite different. You are going to leave them injured in some way.
What I want to say is that we have successfully dealt with certain circumstances and won games. So, why should I modify the successful approach?” replied Raja. Although he acknowledged that India had a larger pool of players from whom they may draw for experimentation, he believed that the Indian squad was not allowing for a model to be formed because of all of the changes that were taking place within the team.
“India fell simply because they are not letting the model set, which is the only reason. They are making an excessive number of adjustments. They are now testing a larger pool of players thanks to which they have more options. Therefore, you do not need to experiment unless you do not have that type of bench strength in your arsenal. You are in a good position, so all you need to do is maintain that and continue to win games,” the Chairman of the PCB continued.
