Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli. (Photo Source: Twitter)
India’s top order woes against a left-arm seamer continued during their Asia Cup 2023 clash against Pakistan on Saturday, September 02 at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Pallekele. The Indian top-order was brought down to their knees as Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf hunted in packs to leave them reeling at 64/4 after 14.1 overs.
Star batters Rohit Sharma (11 off 22), Virat Kohli (4 off 7) and Shubman Gill (10 off 32) faltered against the moving ball and were all out bowled. However, despite their poor outings, former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar defended the Indian batting stars saying it’s a part and parcel of the game.
“I don’t think there’s any huge concern. You look at their records. Virat has scored more than 11000 runs, Rohit has scored more than 9000 runs, and Shubman Gill has shown shades of what he is capable of too. If even after big players like Virat and Rohit fail, we have a responsible No.5 and No.6 who can take us to 260-odd, we don’t need to worry. These things happen in cricket, there will be days where the bowlers are too good,” Gavaskar told Sports Tak.
Notably, Afridi once again tormented the Indian top order as he first set up Rohit Sharma in the fifth over of the innings by bowling a couple of outswingers. He then brought one back into him, which crashed into his stumps. In the very next over, Afridi got Kohli to chop one back onto his stumps as he poked at one delivery outside off stump with his feet going nowhere.
The 23-year-old was the pick of the bowlers for Pakistan with his spell of 4/35 in ten overs in the washed-out fixture.
India have long history of left-arm seamers troubling them
The famed Indian batting duo of Kohli and Rohit have had a long history of left-arm seamers troubling them at big stages such as Mitchell Johnson in the World Cup 2015 semi-final, Mohammed Amir in the 2017 Champions Trophy final, Trent Boult in 2019 World Cup semi-final and Shaheen Afridi in T20 World Cup 2021.
The senior pros are the backbone of the Indian batting lineup and their early dismissals have led to India’s downfall in knockout stages time and again over the past few years. Both batters will be eager to work on their weakness as soon as possible with the World Cup 2023 just one month away.