It was a clinical performance from Pakistan as they finally broke the deadlock and beat India for the very first time ever in T20 World Cups. In some ways, the law of averages struck India who won five previous games in heading into this game in Dubai. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan added an unbeaten 152 as Pakistan aced the chase with 13 balls to spare and won by 10 wickets.
Mohammad Rizwan scored a free-flowing 79 with Babar scoring an unbeaten 68 to chase down the target after their bowlers set up the game for them perfectly at the start. As opposed to the Pakistan bowlers, the Indian bowlers failed to extract any help off the wicket.
Time to reflect and come back stronger 👍#TeamIndia #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/ZGvkQAMASy
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 24, 2021
Both the batsmen mixed caution with aggression as the Indian bowlers had no answer to their intent on winning the game with 10 wickets to spare for the very first time in history.
On that note, let’s take a look at 3 reasons why India lost their T20 World Cup opener against Pakistan:
#1. Losing both openers early
#विराट_कोहली_कप्तानी_छोड़ो
They blame virat for loss .Real reason behind loss .
Poor opening , poor bowling . #INDvPAK #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/ANOFtF1wHB— HARDIK (@Viratko66401481) October 24, 2021
Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul came to open the innings for Team India. Rahul opened the team’s account with a single off the third ball of the first over. Rohit Sharma had come on strike, who had come to play his record seventh T20 World Cup.
The fans were hoping that they would use their experience to give the team a strong start, but before anything could happen, Afridi got Rohit out lbw with a precise full pitched delivery swinging in. On the very first ball of his second over, Rahul created panic by spreading his bails.
Both the openers of the Indian team had returned to the pavilion on a total of just 6 runs on board.
#2. Poor Shot selection
For a time, it seemed that Team India was recovering after losing both the openers. Virat and Suryakumar started playing aggressive shots. The pace of runs was also increasing, but in the last over of the powerplay, Surya was dismissed by Hasan Ali playing an unnecessary shot.
The Indian batsmen did not improve despite losing their three wickets in the powerplay itself. After scoring 60 runs in 10 overs, Rishabh Pant played a bad shot on Shadab’s wrong one and lost his wicket. Ravindra Jadeja also fell victim to poor shot selection.
#3. Wrong line and length by Indian bowlers
The Indian bowlers failed miserably on this pitch. Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar craved the wicket. Varun Chakraborty, who is considered to be a mystery spinner, also had to return empty-handed.
The pitch did not offer much after in the second innings, with due factor coming into play, it totally destroyed India’s chances to get a wicket and eventually Pakistan batsmen took the game away in no time.
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