The Indian top-order suffered a mini-collapse during their Asia Cup 2023 encounter against Pakistan on Saturday. The likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill failed to put up a show with the bat as Pakistan's bowlers made merry at Pallekele. (More Cricket News)
Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah made use of the overcast conditions as Indian batters apart from Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya, proved inconsequenstial to the Indian scorecard.
Speaking on the Team India top-order, former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar said that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were dismissed to a good delivery but Shubman Gill did not look himself in the game.
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"Both the batters (Rohit and Virat) could've used their feet a bit better. Rohit Sharma had a big gap between his bat and pad. Shreyas Iyer was a bit unlucky. That was a cracking hook shot but it went straight to the fielder. If the fielder could've been 5 meters left or right, it would've been a boundary. Shubman Gill, for some strange reason, looked very subdued. Didn't look as if he was playing his natural game, seemed to be in some of uncertainty around him. That's why he didn't open his account for a long time and hardly looked the Shubman Gill that we know," Gavaskar said on India Today.
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Despite the top-order failing, Gavaskar praised Ishan and Hardik for the way they handled the pressure and took India to a comfortable position.
"Yes, I think what he showed was that an opening batter can bat anywhere down the order. It's not easy the other way around, where a middle-order batter can come in and open the batting. It's not easy, but an opening batter can be accommodated anywhere down the order, and he brings a left-handed dimension to the Indian batting line. If you could look at the top four, they're all right and then the left-hander comes in, so it makes it a little bit difficult for the bowlers.
"Plus, he's got this great ability to accelerate. He looks very, very small, but he packs a punch. He hit a couple of big sixes and the way he batted really was impressive because generally he likes to get after the bowling. But he was watchful when it was needed, recognized, realised what the situation was," Gavaskar said.
Sunny praised Hardik's knock of 87 as the all-rounder emerged India's top-scorer on the day.
"There was, of course, Hardik Pandya at the other end who captained the Gujarat Titans. So he knows exactly you know what situation, how to adjust his game and he was guiding him. So that was a very, very good partnership. Without that partnership, India would have 175 or 200," said Gavaskar.
