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Former Indian legendary opener Sunil Gavaskar was baffled by the way Pakistan captain Babar Azam rotated his bowlers during their encounter against India in the Asia Cup 2023 in Kandy on Saturday, September 2.
Pakistan had India on the ropes at 66/4 and it seemed after a point that the latter would struggle to even reach the 200-run mark. However, the Men in Green probably had the spinners on for too long in the middle overs, according to Gavaskar.
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."
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 letting the spinners bowl in tandem and not have at least one pacer operating from one end played into India's hands. He felt things could have been different had the pacers been brought back earlier.
On this, 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 that would arguably give them a massive confidence booster and a sense of belief that they aren't overdependent on their top order.
