Pakan have the most lethal new-ball attack in the game: Sunil Gavaskar ahead of IND-PAK Asia Cup clash | Cricket News
After two-and-a-half games played at the ongoing Asia Cup, Pakan look as front runners for the summit clash with a Super 4 win already in their hands before they take on India for the second time.
Last Sunday, the Babar Azam led side had managed to restrict India to 265 before rain called off the group stage match. A win against Nepal and a shared point was enough to see them through to the next round where they regered a comfortable win against Bangladesh earlier this week. Ahead of their game on Sunday, former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar has heaped praises about their big strength.
“At one point of time it was Australia and Pakan probably shared that number 1 and number 2 spot because Pakan have always had top-class new-ball bowlers. But at this point of time, they have the most lethal new-ball attack in the game,” Gavaskar told India Today.
“They have a left-arm, right-arm combination. They can move the ball both ways at good pace. So, it’s not easy for any batter to get aggressive against them from the word go,” he added.
The pace trio of Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah share a total of 23 wickets between them in the three games so far at this Asia Cup, and sit as the top three in the wickets tally. While Haris leads the charts with nine scalps, Shaheen and Naseem have nabbed seven wickets each.
Round 1 vs India
In their first face off against India in the ongoing tournament, the Pakan pace triumvirate was able to claim all 10 wickets for themselves in Pallekele.
The duo of Haris Rauf and Shaheen Afridi would induce an early collapse of the top order removing Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer with just 66 runs on the board.Most Read
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It was then that Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya added a crucial 148-runs, India’s highest stand for fifth wicket, to bail the men in blue out of danger and guide them to a par score before Shaheen, Naseem and Haris returned to attack and closed the innings for Pakan.
Even though the game was eventually washed out, one of the bigger arguments put against captain Babar Azam was why he had persed with spinners for too long and allowed Kishan and Pandya to settle from the pace onslaught.
With 67 wickets between them for Pakan in ODIs so far this year, the three are expected to play a big role for the side not just on Sunday but also during the World Cup in India.
