Sunil Gavaskar, a renowned former Indian legend, highlighted that India’s plan for their much anticipated ODI World Cup 2023 match against Pakistan was to deny their bitter enemies any opportunities. At Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, Team India defeated the Men in Green with ease by a margin of seven wickets. India then successfully completed the 192-run chase with 19.3 overs remaining.
In a similar vein, the ‘Little Master’ disclosed that India’s premeditated approach was to deny Pakistan any openings, profiting on their earlier dismissal when Pakistan crumbled to a meager 191 runs after being asked to bat first. He also emphasized that Shaheen Afridi might have posed a threat against India had the speedster performed as expected.
“The idea was to never give Pakistan a chance in any form after dismissing them for 191 runs. Shaheen Shah Afridi posed the most risk because if he picked up a few early wickets, the team might start to fear a little bit. But we’ve seen how India bounced back against Australia,” Sunil Gavaskar stated in a Star Sports interview.
Rohit’s flip off the first delivery of India’s inning impressed Sunil Gavaskar.
The 74-year-old continued his views by pointing out how the Indian openers took a proactive stance against Pakistan’s fast bowlers by immediately starting their attacking game from the very first delivery. Notably, Rohit Sharma set the tone by hitting a boundary off the first pitch of the second innings from Shaheen Afridi, which left the ODI World Cup champion legend speechless.
“So, Rohit flicked the first ball he faced, which was on the pads and swinging in, for a magnificent boundary off the middle of the bat. After one bounce, I hit the fence. So, that demonstrated intent. They wouldn’t be intimidated by his track record against us, Gavaskar continued.
India will turn their attention to the forthcoming match against Bangladesh, which is set to take place on October 19 at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune, after their successful meeting against Pakistan. With three victories in as many games and a stellar Net Run Rate (NRR) of 1.821, India has surpassed New Zealand’s 1.604 to take the top spot on the points table.
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