Retired Pakistani cricketer brings to light a “problem” with the top 3 for India.
Retired Pakistani cricketer brings to light a “problem” with the top 3 for India. India, led by Rohit Sharma, was favored to win the Asia Cup, which took place in the UAE from August 27 to September 11. Rohit and his team were the best in their group and made it into the Super Four. But post that, there was nothing but dismay. India lost their first two games in the Super Four round to Pakistan and Sri Lanka, so they didn’t make it to the final of the Asia Cup 2022 tournament.
Disappointment for Men in Blue
Pakistan and Sri Lanka played in the showdown. The Islanders, led by Dasun Shanaka, won by 23 runs. The match took place at the famous Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai. But unfortunately, despite the high hopes, India didn’t even make it to the final. So the Men in Blue’s campaign was nothing worth remembering. Recently, former Pakistani cricketer Bazid Khan put the blame on India’s famous top three — Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli — for not getting off to a good start together from the first game. According to Bazid, this led to India’s loss in the continental tournament.
Here’s what he said!
“India, I thought. I mean Kohli got a hundred in the last game although he was looking good throughout. But India also had the problem that their top-three weren’t in form at the start of the tournament, but found form as the tournament progressed. So those three didn’t hit the ground running which meant that they lost those games, and all were close matches. And they would look at and think that now with players like Bumrah coming in and working towards that T20 World Cup they are in a better space but I reckon that because a few of their batters weren’t in top gear, that was a huge issue,” Bazid told in an exclusive interaction with Hindustan Times.
A good tournament for Kohli, but what about India?
Kohli finished the Asia Cup with 276 runs, which was second overall. Rahul, on the other hand, only got 132 runs at 122.22, while captain Rohit got 133 runs, including a 42-ball 71 against Sri Lanka in the Super Four match. Rahul’s only half-century came in a meaningless game against Afghanistan, where he scored 62. Moreover, Hitman was also slow to get going. Except for the game against Sri Lanka, Kohli looked in good form the whole time, but his strike rate went up a lot in India’s last game against the Afghans when he hit a stunning 122 not out in just 61 balls.Bazid also liked how aggressive India was with the bat in the shortest format before the T20 World Cup in Australia next month. In this situation, he said, “That’s the way forward. I don’t think there is merit in playing those 20 overs and being at 150 for 5. It’s just that you have wasted your resources. India have done very well playing this brand of cricket and it has actually helped them become a more dangerous and evolved T20 side. Every team has attacking players in their line-up, look at Sri Lanka, in that final they had lost 5 wickets but they kept on attacking. Their thought process was if you bat out the overs, and get to 130, that is equivalent to getting bowled out for 110. So you might as well get to 170 or 180, rather than settle for 130. And things worked in their favour.”
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