Former Indian veteran opener Sunil Gavaskar was surprised by the way Pakistan captain Babar Azam rotated his bowlers during the match against India in the Asia Cup 2023 in Kandy on Saturday, September 2. India was 66/4 in front of Pakistan and after a point, it looked like India would struggle even to reach the 200-run mark. However, according to Gavaskar, the Men in Green probably had their spinners in the middle overs for too long.
Speaking to India Today, here’s what Sunil Gavaskar had to say about Pakistan’s bowling during the partnership between Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya:
“I think the bowling changes didn’t make any sense because if you have three bowlers, the pace bowlers have taken the early wickets, you want to keep at least one ongoing from one end. I know that you can’t really go through long spells, but one person could have been bowling from one end and Shadab or Nawaz from the other end.”\
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India Would Have Struggled To Reach Even 175, 200: Sunil Gavaskar
While Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya were brilliant in their partnership, Sunil Gavaskar believes that Babar allowed the spinners to bowl together and did not allow at least one fast bowler to work from one end, which helped India. It was beneficial. He believes that things could have been different if the fast bowlers had been brought back earlier.
On this, Sunil Gavaskar stated:
“I mean India will be saying a big thank you because that’s what allowed the partnership to flourish because otherwise, if one of the pacers had taken just that one wicket between Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya, then maybe India would have struggled to reach even 175, 200.”
India managed to reach 266 from 66/4 and this will surely give them huge confidence and a sense of belief that they are not overly dependent on their top order.
