ISLAMABAD (Monitoring Desk) : Pakistani cricket experts and analysts on Sunday identified psychological pressure and Pakistan’s poor bowling as primary reasons for the green shirts’ defeat against arch-rivals India in their World Cup clash in Ahmedabad.
India cruised to a seven-wicket victory over Pakistan in what seemed to be a one-sided affair as the two sides locked horns in a World Cup clash in front of over 120,000 fans on Saturday.
Inspired by an aggressive half-century by skipper Rohit Sharma and potent bowling by pacer Jasprit Bumrah, India managed to extend their unbeaten streak against the neighboring arch-rivals to eight in the 50-over World Cup.
“I think that when it comes to 50-over cricket, our players suffer from a lot of pressure regarding India,” Mirza Iqbal Baig, a senior sports journalist and cricket analyst, told Arab News.
“There were nearly 125,000 fans in the stadium. So, there was the crowd’s pressure and then the players also suffered from a lot of pressure which caused Pakistan’s defeat.”
Marina Iqbal, a former professional cricketer and member of the Pakistan women’s selection committee, agreed the green shirts suffered from a “psychological” disadvantage against India.
“Yes, of course, the psychological aspect will always be there,” she told Arab News. “But there were other reasons also due to which we faltered against India. Probably, the biggest difference on the field is the robustness of the Indian batting against our bowling.”
Iqbal said India has the luxury of players who can fit in at any number in their batting order and perform well without any apparent vulnerability.
“So that actually nullifies our bowling strength and also the mental toughness that they [Indians] have as players,” she added.
The expert said Pakistan needed a “stable yet daunting” middle-order that could keep up with an aggressive run rate, adding that scoring 300-350 runs for teams was turning out to be a “norm” in this World Cup.
Baig criticized Pakistan’s all-rounders for neither batting impressively, nor bowling well. He said the pace battery comprising Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah, which was considered the most fearsome pace trio in the world a short while ago, could not live up to the expectations.
“Now, Pakistan’s bowling seems all over the place,” he said.
Baig said Pakistan had also not tested its bench strength properly and played with the same players against strong and weak teams, when they could have experimented with different cricketers.
He described Pakistan’s spin bowling attack as “extremely weak” compared to other teams, lamenting that other Pakistani spinners were not given a chance to perform.
“We have been persisting with Shadab Khan and Muhammad Nawaz for so long. We didn’t even include our mystery spinner Abrar in the team, we kept him as a traveling reserve,” he said.
But despite the setback, Iqbal said, Pakistan could bounce back in the tournament after the drubbing they got on Saturday.
“Practically speaking, we played three games and lost just one,” she said, adding the green shirts should not let the India loss lower their spirits.
