Several Pakistani players rated Rohit Sharma as the best executor of the pull shot in an ICC video.
Batting first, Pakistan put up a paltry 191 runs on the board with skipper Babar Azam scoring 50 and Mohammad Rizwan making 49 runs. In reply, Rohit Sharma slammed 86 from 63 balls with 6 fours and as many sixes. Shreyas Iyer made 53* as India won by 7 wickets and 117 balls to spare.
Ahead of Saturday's blockbuster match, the International Cricket Council (ICC) posted a video where the Pakistan players were asked to name a player who plays the best pull shots.
In the video, Haris Rauf, Imam-ul-Haq, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, and Babar Azam all took Rohit's name.
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After the match, former Pakistan captain Salman Butt was analyzing the defeat and pointed out the same video and severely criticized the Pakistani bowlers for bowling short to Rohit Sharma despite knowing he plays the shot to perfection.
"A few days back, the Pakistan players were asked 'Who plays the best pull shots?' All five of them took Rohit Sharma's name. I don't know what the statisticians are doing. What are they telling the players. This is very weird that five players from the playing XI are saying that Rohit Sharma plays the pull shot efficiently, and you're still allowing him to score runs off that," Butt said in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel.
Rohit Sharma hit sixes to both Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf, including two in-one over off Rauf. He was looking good for his second century of the tournament, but Shaheen’s cleverly disguised slower ball caused his dismissal.