Pakistan got it totally wrong against India in 2019 World Cup clash, opines Waqar Younis
Waqar Younis reveals Pakistan got it totally wrong in WC clash against India
|Waqar Younis is of the opinion that Pakistan, led by Sarfraz Ahmed, got it totally wrong starting from the toss against India in the 2019 World Cup clash at Old Trafford. Waqar reckoned that after winning the toss, Pakistan did a mistake by letting India bat first in the encounter.
After winning the toss in overcast conditions at Old Trafford, Pakistan’s skipper Sarfraz Ahmed sent arch-rivals India to bat first in the high-pressure encounter. With Shikhar Dhawan ruled out of the contest, the Indian management sent in KL Rahul to partner Rohit Sharma at the top of the order.
That did not go too well for Pakistan as on the back of Rohit Sharma’s 113-ball 140 and Virat Kohli’s 75, India piled up a total of 336 after the end of their innings. For Pakistan, it was the left-arm seamer Mohammad Amir, who ended up with figures of 3/47 in the particular fixture. Despite the injury to Bhuvneshwar Kumar early on in the Pakistan innings, the rest of the batting unit faltered under the pressure, as India came away victors.
And according to Waqar Younis, Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed got everything wrong in the encounter, starting from the toss.
"I think Pakistan got it totally wrong against India in 2019 starting right from the toss. I think they were hoping that the pitch will do a lot more and they will get early wickets which will put India under pressure," Waqar said on 'Q20', a chat show presented by 'GloFans'.
"...they did not really let the bowlers settle. And, the pitch did not really do much and once they get going it was very difficult to stop them. They piled up so many runs to which Pakistan had no answers at all," he added.
For India, it was the bowling trio of Hardik Pandya, Vijay Shankar and Kuldeep Yadav who picked up two apiece to reduce Pakistan to a total of 212 for the loss of six wickets. On top of that, it also meant that they lost by a huge margin of 82 runs, according to DLS method at the end of the day. Waqar labelled the mistake at the toss as 'silly' and also admitted that India were too good for the Men in Green on the day.
"So, I think it was a silly mistake when, to begin with, winning the toss and asking India to bat because batting first on that pitch was the way to go and it did not really help Pakistan that day and India was too good, way too good," he added.
