Former India captain criticises Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma over their technique against Pakistan in Asia Cup 2023 clash

Former India captain and commentator Sunil Gavaskar recently analysed the performance of India’s top-order batting after their low score against Pakistan. Gavaskar criticised batters as they miserably collapsed during the initial overs of the match. India and Pakistan encountered each other on 2 September at Kandy, Sri Lanka. However, the match was abandoned without a single ball being bowled in the second innings. 

Gavaskar was all in praise for India’s young batter, Ishan Kishan after his stellar performance of 82 runs off 81 deliveries with a strike rate of 101.23. Kishan and Hardik’s strong partnership led India to a respectable score of 266. 

Sunil Gavaskar praised Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya 

“Yes, I think what he showed was that an opening batter can bat anywhere down the order. It’s not easy the other way around, where a middle-order batter can come in and open the batting. It’s not easy, but an opening batter can be accommodated anywhere down the order, and he brings a left-handed dimension to the Indian batting line. If you could look at the top four, they’re all right and then the left-hander comes in, so it makes it a little bit difficult for the bowlers”, said Sunil Gavaskar. 

“He’s got this great ability to accelerate. He looks very, very small, but he packs a punch. He hit a couple of big sixes and the way he batted really was impressive because generally, he likes to get after the bowling. But he was watchful when it was needed, recognized, realised what the situation was,” added Sunil Gavaskar. 

“There was, of course, Hardik Pandya at the other end who captained the Gujarat Titans. So he knows exactly you know what situation, how to adjust his game and he was guiding him. So that was a very, very good partnership. Without that partnership, India would have 175 or 200,” concluded Sunil Gavaskar.