Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq feels India’s biggest setback was the selection of Hardik Pandya in the high-voltage clash against the arch-rivals Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
Kohli had backed Pandya as a batter in the pre-match conference and decided to play him despite bowling fitness issues.
As expected Pandya was not fit enough to bowl and he didn’t even take the field after he injured his shoulder while batting. The right-hander could only score 11 runs off eight balls and didn’t add the finishing touches to the total.
In fact, a lot of cricket boffins have questioned Hardik Pandya’s selection in the team since he isn’t contributing any overs with the ball. However, Kohli had backed him as a batter and stated that he brings value as a finisher.
“India’s biggest setback was because they played Hardik Pandya. India were not right with their team selection. Babar Azam knew exactly what he was doing with his XI but India were not,” Inzamam said on his YouTube channel.
On the other hand, former Pakistan talisman batter feels Pandya shouldn’t have indicated that he was hit on the shoulder and exposed his weakness. The all-rounder then didn’t even take the field because of his injury.
“I did not think it was the right thing for Pandya to point towards his shoulder after being hit. When you play a high-voltage match like this, you don’t give a clue to the opposition even when you are hurt. I have seen Indian players like Sachin Tendulkar get hit but they didn’t use to rub that part. They gave no clue that they were hurt. I immediately got a clue that India was under pressure when Pandya grabbed his shoulders. That was not a good sign. He didn’t come out field, didn’t bowl,” said the former Pakistan batter.
As Pandya hasn’t been bowling, the sixth bowling option is hurting India. Mohammad Shami was expensive in his spell and it would have been better if Kohli had the option of turning to a sixth bowler.
“If India played the sixth bowler, then it would have been better. Look at how playing Mohammad Hafeez gave an advantage to Babar Azam. He got two overs out of the way by using Hafeez instead of bowling four from Imad Wasim. They had Shoaib Malik too,” he added.
India will next face New Zealand on Sunday.
