Connect with us

Sports

‘Indians were scared even before match started’: Inzamam on IND-PAK T20 WC game

Published

on

‘Indians were scared even before match started’: Inzamam on IND-PAK T20 WC game

Former captain Inzamam-Ul-Haq made a bold statement about the Indian cricket team and its performance against Pakistan in the 2021 T20 World Cup. For the first time in history, the blue men’s team lost to their rival in the World Cup. The Pakistan team defeated India with 10 wickets. The first game combination of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan chased 152 wickets, breaking the team’s long-term predicament in the World Cup for nearly three years.

There have been many stories and articles about India’s indifferent outing at the Dubai International Stadium, including Inzamam’s claim that Virat Kohli’s team was frightened even before the start of the World Cup. “I think the Indians were scared even before the game started. Their body language, if you see Virat Kohli and Babar Azam being interviewed during the game, you will feel “who is under pressure.” The body language of our team is much better than theirs. It was not that India was under pressure after Rohit Sharma was fired. Sharma himself was under pressure. Obviously, they are all under pressure,” Inzamam said on ARY.

India had an achromatic T20 World Cup, which was eliminated before reaching the semi-finals. For the first time in eight years, the team failed to enter the knockout stage of an ICC event. After losing to Pakistan and New Zealand, India has been in a downturn. Although they have indeed defeated Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia in the past three games, they are still not enough to advance to the semi-finals. Inzamam felt the pressure that the Indian team responded so much after Pakistan’s defeat that the team failed to recover from the beating, which affected their T20 World Cup journey.

“The Indian team has never played like they did. They are a good T20 team, there is no doubt about that. If you look at their performance in the past 2-3 years, they are the most popular. But that game The India-Pakistan match added Inzamam that they were under too much pressure and did not look back.

Advertisement

“Their feet didn’t move at all. After losing to Pakistan, they received a lot of criticism and had a 3-4 day break. The poor guys can’t even play Santner and Sodhi. They are good spin players. The pressure is on them. Increase.”

News Source : Hindustan Times

Cricket

KL Rahul dangerously close to Laxman territory; to be perished for Sarfaraz Khan and Shubman Gill

Published

on

By

KL Rahul dangerously close to Laxman territory; to be perished for Sarfaraz Khan and Shubman Gill

To accommodate both Sarfaraz and Gill and stick with their five-bowler formula, a batter from the Bengaluru Test must make way. Ergo Rahul and the predicted axe

VVS Laxman went through the first half of his illustrious 15-and-a-half-year international career with the proverbial axe hanging over him. Despite his magical stroke-play and a well-founded reputation for rallying the lower order to bat above itself, he was forever the first name that sprang to the decision-makers’ minds when they had to drop someone to accommodate someone else. It wasn’t until the second half of his stint with the national team that he had ‘job security’, which automatically manifested itself in an array of glorious, match-turning knocks and earmarked him as one for a crisis.

KL Rahul is now dangerously close to approaching the Laxman territory, though at least in this instance, a case can be made out, perhaps, for why he often seems to be playing for his place. Almost a decade after his Test debut in Australia in December 2014, he has yet to nail down a permanent spot, a result of glaring inconsistency and repeated dalliances with injuries that have left him with a modest average of 33.87 from 53 Test appearances.

Unlike Laxman, who was thrust to the opener’s position for three years from 1997, successive team managements have worked overtime to create space for Rahul. He started off in the middle order in Melbourne against Australia, opened in the next Test in Sydney when he made a sparkling century, continued in that position for a good nine years – around the large pockets when either injuries or lack of form relegated him to the sidelines – and now seems to have found his calling in the middle order, where he was tried out in an almost last throw of the dice in South Africa last December.

Advertisement

In his limited time at the No. 6 position, Rahul has been a revelation. On a spiteful surface in Centurion in his first innings back in the middle order, the classy right-hander made a marvellous 101 – Virat Kohli’s 38 was the next highest score – in India’s 245 all out. Two Tests later, against England in Hyderabad, he waltzed to 86 of the best until a hamstring strain kept him out of the last four Tests.

On his comeback last month against Bangladesh, Rahul showed why he is rated so highly, and therefore why he so frustrates when he chooses to shackle himself mentally, with uninhibited shot-making when India were pressing for a declaration (Chennai) and looking to make up for lost time with a frenetic batting approach (Kanpur) in the two Tests. Kanpur was especially mesmeric, 68 flowing off his bat in a mere 43 deliveries. It was the best of Rahul.

Axe hangs over Rahul’s head for India vs New Zealand 2nd Test

And yet here we are, two innings later, wondering whether he will, or should, feature in the playing XI in Pune, where India take on New Zealand in a must-win second Test from Thursday.

Shubman Gill, him of three centuries in his last six Tests, missed the Bengaluru defeat to the Kiwis with a stiff neck. Replacement batter Sarfaraz Khan made the most of own good fortune with a delectable 150, which makes it near impossible to drop him now that Gill is fully fit. To accommodate both Sarfaraz and Gill and stick with their five-bowler formula which has worked beautifully in the last few years, a batter from the Bengaluru Test must make way. Ergo Rahul and the predicted axe.

Advertisement

One of the few men to have led India in all three formats internationally, Rahul didn’t help his cause with scores of 0 and 12 at his home ground, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. In the first innings, he was strangled down leg-side by William O’Rourke while in the second, he received a peach from the same paceman operating with the second new ball and was again caught behind. Rahul was one of 11 failures in India’s first-innings 46 and one of seven wickets to fall in 93 deliveries to the second new cherry, but failures past and the logjam created by Gill’s availability have combined to identify him as the most susceptible to the axe.

It’s a cross impossible to bear, but also impossible to ignore just because it is so heavy, so overarching. Rahul is beyond gifted and makes batting appear oh-so-simple, but his struggles to embrace sustained run-making can’t be wished away. He is the eternal team man, much like his celebrated namesake also from Karnataka – both kept wickets admirably in 50-over World Cups 21 years apart, both made attractive and impactful runs during the tournament and both tasted bitter defeat at the hands of Australia in the final – but ‘eternal team man’ can sometimes be an euphemism for the ‘most dispensable’ and Rahul can be excused for thinking that those two lines have blurred beyond repair. Of course, if he is brutally honest to himself, he will acknowledge at least to himself that he too must bear culpability for the blurring of the lines.

Group Media Publications
Entertainment News Platforms – anyflix.in      
Construction Infrastructure and Mining News Platform – https://cimreviews.com/
General News Platform – https://ihtlive.com/

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Anyskill-ads

Facebook

Trending