IND vs PAK, 2024 T20 World Cup: Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the Indian batters for their dismal show against Pakistan in New York on Sunday. Gavaskar called the Indian batters ‘arrogant and reckless’ and that they also disrespected the Pakistan bowlers on a surface that isn’t batters friendly. India was skittled out for 119 runs in 19 overs and registered their lowest total against the Men in Green in a T20 World Cup match.
Rishabh Pant was the highest run-scorer as he scored 42 runs whereas Axar Patel could only score 20 runs after coming into bat at No.4 position. But the rest of the batters couldn’t score more than 15 runs, which includes skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Axar, Suryakumar Yadav, and Rohit Sharma got out by playing rash shots.
"Disappointing batting performance. It bordered on arrogance and recklessness if I might use the word. Because there was arrogance at the start of the innings as well. They were looking to hit every ball. This is not an Ireland attack. "This is not an ordinary bowling attack,” Sunil Gavaskar was quoted as saying on Star Sports.
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"I don't mean any disrespect to Ireland, but Pakistan is a very, very experienced attack. It should have been just that little bit of respect given when the ball was doing a little bit. Getting out with one over to spare tells you that you were probably not in the right kind of thinking cap. Another six runs, maybe getting to 125 would have made a difference," he added.
The Rohit Sharma-led side were skittled out for the first time in a T20 World Cup match against their arch-nemesis Pakistan. Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf took three wickets apiece whereas Mohammad Amir rattled India’s middle-order batting lineup by dismissing Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja.
The Indian team is quite aware of the fact that scoring runs won’t be easy in the first half of the tournament, but they still haven’t been able to adjust to the conditions and tried to post a bigger target than what they could manage.