Former India pacer Zaheer Khan believes Virat Kohli should have opened the bowling with Jasprit Bumrah instead of bringing him in the third over in the T20 World Cup 2021 encounter against Pakistan.
Pakistan crushed India by 10 wickets for the first-ever victory against its archrival in a T20 World Cup game on Sunday. Mohammad Rizwan (79 not out) and captain Babar Azam (68 not out) struck superb unbeaten half-centuries and eased Pakistan to 152-0 in 17.5 overs in Group 2 of the Super 12s.
“You have your plans before the game, but once you are in the game, you’ve just got to go with it – maybe change certain things that you had planned. Maybe you could have used Bumrah differently. By the time the game finished, you had under-utilised Bumrah.
“They could have gone for their trump card right up front rather than getting him into the game in the third over. Starting with him might have turned things around a bit,” Zaheer Khan told Cricbuzz.
“But these are things in hindsight. At times, you stick to the strategy which you have made. I am sure the think-tank in the innings break would have thought about it and chosen otherwise. But who would have expected that the two openers would just carry the innings through, ” he added.
Further, Zaheer Khan also asserted that the dew factor did play a role but credited Pakistan for the pressure they put on India to win their first-ever T20 World Cup match against the arch-rivals.
“The dew factor did play a role. Having said that, when you know that dew is going to be a factor, you’ve got to have that extra cushion of 20-25 runs on the board, just to stay on top of things.
“But today wasn’t the case. Right throughout the game, you saw Pakistan in control of the game. They showed the intent, and India was always trying to catch up in this particular game, which was pretty obvious.”
