Former Pakistan and Indian cricketers criticized Babar Azam’s captaincy inthe Asia Cup 2023 Group A clash between India and Pakistan. Shoaib Akhtarsuggested, “Pakistan should have continued with pacers with short two-overspells from one end and operate spin from only one end.” He believedPakistan missed an opportunity after reducing India to 66-4.
Aakash Chopra echoed this sentiment, stating, “Babar Azam got his spinnersto bowl 21 overs when the opposing team was 66/4. You had 30 overs of fastbowling.” He felt that Pakistan should have been more aggressive in theirapproach to bowl India out earlier.
Chopra also mentioned that Pakistan had “missed a trick” and could havepressured India into a lower total by maintaining continuous fast bowlingfrom one end.
Sunil Gavaskar expressed his confusion regarding Babar’s bowling changes,saying, “The bowling changes didn’t make any sense because if you havethree bowlers, the pace bowlers have taken the early wickets, you want tokeep at least one ongoing from one end.”
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Irfan Pathan highlighted Pakistan’s shortage of pacers in favorablefast-bowling conditions, mentioning that spinners conceding 133 runswithout a wicket in 21 overs was a game-changer.
Shaheen and Haris Rauf reduced India to 66-4 before a fightback by IshanKishan and Hardik Pandya lifted India to 266 all out.
