The Asia Cup is set to go live within just a couple of days and the respective teams have reached UAE to start their final prep. The 28th of August will witness a high-octane clash between the rivals India and Pakistan. The clash is going to be exciting as it doesn’t remain one-sided after India’s defeat last year in T20 World Cup against Pakistan.
Both the teams are losing out on their primary pace attackers. While Jasprit Bumrah misses out due to a back injury, it was recently announced that Shaheen Afridi is also ruled out due to a knee injury. Now, it’s up to see which bowler from the respective teams is going to be a threat to each other.
The Indian team is banking on their spin attack, courtesy of Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Ravindra Jadeja. And following this, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra issued a warning to the men in green.
Aakash Chopra analyses the Pakistani bowling unit
Babar Azam expects other pacers to step up in the absence of Shaheen Shah Afridi #PAKvIND #AsiaCup #ShaheenShahAfridi pic.twitter.com/VJubLAGNFf
— Cricket Pakistan (@cricketpakcompk) August 21, 2022
Chopra has noted that the Pakistani squad is losing out on a wicket-taking spinner as opposed to that of India’s skilled attack.
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“Firstly, they don’t have a wicket-taking spinner. They have a lot of spin options, but who will pick up wickets? All of them are restrictive. You can see Shadab Khan, he did well in the PSL, but if you see the recent international numbers, he has not taken wickets even in ODIs. He is not your wicket-taker, he is not Yuzi Chahal or Rashid Khan,” said Chopra.
The Babar Azam-led team has Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, and Usman Qadir as their chosen spinners for the tournament. “Usman Qadir can pick up wickets, but he is too young. He has played very little cricket as well. Nawaz is also the same story-bowls restrictively. The Dubai pitch generally does not turn that much, but sometimes you need bowlers who can come and pick up wickets in the middle overs. I don’t think they have too many of those, to be very honest,” Chopra further noted.
Moreover, with Shaheen Afridi out, the pace attack is also not sure of scalping those needed breakthroughs. With Mohammad Hasnain as the replacement and others like Naseem Shah, the side is lacking international experience.
“The second thing I am seeing is the lack of experience in the pace department. They have a lot of pacers. Naseem Shah, who started playing ODI cricket recently-five wickets and all of that, but how much international T20 cricket has he played-nothing.”
“Shahnawaz Dahani-he does extremely well in the PSL, but how much international cricket has he played? The same is the case with Hasnain. They do have experience in the form of Haris Rauf, but they are going to miss Shaheen Afridi a lot because they hugely lack experience in fast bowling,” analyzed Aakash Chopra.
