After Pakistan got bundled out for just 191 inside 43 overs, former pacer Shoaib Akhtar came down hard on the Men in Green. In a video posted by Akhtar over his X (formerly Twitter) account, he said that the track at Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad suited batting and had nothing for the bowlers, yet the team could not capitalise the situation. The retired pacer also said that Indian bowlers bowled superbly as well. Akhtar said, “You saw the match. It was such a beautiful wicket to bat on. That was such a great platform for the Pakistani batters. But they could not capitalise the situation. Very disheartening to see that. The ball did not do anything on this track and Pakistan played across.”
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Akhtar was all praise for the Indian captain Rohit Sharma, saying that he made clever bowling changes and executed the plans well. “Well done, India. Great captaincy by Rohit Sharma. He made the right changes and what a fantastic spin bowling from Indian spinners,” said Ex-Pakistan pacer.
Watch Akhtar’s video as the criticises Babar Azam and Co:
What a waste of opportunity on a great batting wicket. Disappointed. Very disappointed. pic.twitter.com/2EnC1z9zni
— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) October 14, 2023
In another post on X, Akhtar said that it needs firewithin to make the 1 lakh 30 thousands fans quiet in the stadium. Here, Akhtar was talking about his spell against India at the Eden Gardens in 1999 when he took a hattrick to bring the noise down at the stadium.
Coming to the match, Indian bowling was exceptional, picking wickets at regular intervals. At the same time, it is important to note that Pakistan were equally bad with the bat even when they had wickets in hand. They were 40-odd for 1 at the end of the first powerplay. On this batting-friendly wicket, such a conservative approach cost them hugely. Babar Azam struck a fifty but that came off 58 balls. Mohammad Rizwan, the next best batter on the day, scored 49 off 69 balls.
As soon as these two fell, Pakistan’s inings fell like nine pins. Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav’s spell in the middle overs was crucial. They broke the back of the Pakistani batting by dismissing the likes of Rizwan, Iftikhar Ahmed and Shadba Khan in quick succession. After that, Pakistan only played catchup game, unable to score freely. In the end, they could only put up 191 on the scoreboard, which was never going to be enough for the strong batting lineup that India is.
