Former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra heaped praise on Pakistan for the way they played against India and thrashed the Virat Kohli-led team without taking any risks in their first game of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 on Sunday (October 24) in Dubai.
In the one-sided affair in Dubai, Pakistan did not give India a chance to make a comeback both with the bat and ball, and eventually, they registered their first win over Team India since 1992 in the World Cups, both the ODI and T20 formats on Sunday.
Praising Pakistan, Nehra said that the Babar Azam-led side made people take notice of their performance with their big win over India and are now strong contenders to reach the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 while mentioning that the T20 format is unpredictable.
Nehra told Cricbuzz: “Those who weren’t already considering them favorites to reach the semi-finals were underestimating Pakistan. And you are talking about T20s. In their pool, there are three strong teams India, Pakistan, and New Zealand. But in the T20s, anyone can beat anyone. The manner in which Pakistan won, people will stand up and take notice.”
On being asked if Indian bowlers could have performed better, the former pacer said: “No, not at all. The ball had also gotten a little wet because of the dew. And the way Pakistan started, it filled them with confidence and both of them batted very cleanly.
I just remember one incident when Mohammad Rizwan played a sweep shot off Varun Chakravarthy and it went for a six that was the only shot where it felt like the batter has taken a risk. Other than that, they played risk-free batting. And with the dew factor and the pitch got better to bat on, they took full advantage of that. So you just have to praise the way Pakistan played today.”
However, Nehra has defended Kohli’s captaincy against Pakistan, though felt he should have bowled Mohammad Shami for two consecutive overs in powerplays on Sunday.
He signed off by saying, “About Virat Kohli’s captaincy, the only thing I would say is he could have played Mohammed Shami for two consecutive overs (in the Powerplay), but it is also not easy for the captain because there were no wickets in the first three overs, so he tried Varun Chakravarthy also who can be an X-factor, but he went back to Shami and then gave the sixth over to Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
But basically, Pakistan did not give India a chance. From their bowling to their fielding, to their batting, they played a 10/10 match and dominated.”
