India vs Pakistan: Rohit Sharma-led team India returned the favor to Pakistan as they decimated the boys in green by a margin of 5 wickets. The entire match was built upon how Babar Azam and co. had the upper hand over team India when they met at the ICC T20I World Cup 2021. Pakistan had defeated India by a margin of 10 wickets and as a result, this crushing victory derailed their campaign and dampened their spirits for the remainder of the tournament.
When India took on Pakistan for the first group A match, things looked evenly balanced. Both these sides had lost their spearheads way before the tournament had started and were relying heavily on their batsmen to do most of the talking on the field with their skills. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field first. Sensing the presence of dew which impacts the game in the later half, it was pretty safe for Rohit and co. to invite Pakistan to bat first. Indian speedsters such as Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, and Hardik Pandya used the short ball ploy against Pakistan and left them completely bamboozled. Pakistan was restricted to a score of 147. When India came out to bat, they were put into trouble early on with Naseem Shah dismissing KL Rahul. Batters like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma too couldn't have any kind of impact on the game. It was the likes of Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja who helped India cruise through the rough seas before they could seal the match by 5 wickets.
With this thumping victory, Rohit Sharma has become the only captain besides MS Dhoni to win a T20I match against Pakistan. The World Cup-winning captain had led India in 8 T20I matches against Pakistan and had won 7 games. On the other hand, there is former India skipper Virat Kohli who had led India in only one T20I match against Pakistan but ended up losing it. It comes as a surprise that Virat hasn't led India in any edition of the Asia Cup too.
Rohit Sharma greets Babar Azam ahead of India's clash with Pakistan in the Asia Cup
India now has the momentum on their side and they will now want to improve from here on and defend their title against some big cricketing nations of Asia.
