Aakash Chopra
Former India opener and presently a cricket commentator Aakash Chopra hit back at ex-Pakistan cricketers who have claimed that India deliberately lost to England in the league stage of the World Cup 2019 to deny Sarfaraz Ahmed-led side to qualify for the finals. The statement from the former Pakistan cricketers came after England all-rounder Ben Stokes recently mentioned in his book about the lack of intent in India's game against England.
Aakash, speaking on his YouTube channel, explained the entire match before pointing out where India lost and the reason behind it.
“Some former Pakistan cricketers seem to have passed the verdict. They are saying that India lost the match to England intentionally to ensure Pakistan doesn’t go through. They are even suggesting that ICC should fine India and something like this is not acceptable. How can they even suggest something like that.
“One needs to look at the circumstances the teams were in...the boundary at one side was very small, and England scored 337 on a placid track. Every bowler went for runs although India did bounce back in the last ten overs and I was commentating on the match,” said Aakash.
Aakash reckoned that India's over-reliance on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli was where the team lost the match.
“KL Rahul was dismissed in the very first over of the chase and after Rohit was given a reprieve, both Rohit and Virat played the first 10 overs very carefully. In hindsight if you look at where the game changed, it was in those 10 overs and not towards the end of the chase.
“I think what happened was that the Indian batsmen became too cautious about not losing wickets and that is where they got behind the asking rate.The intent in the first 10 overs was defensive but both Kohli and Rohit knew that if they had got out early then the match could get over very quickly,” Chopra said.
Aakash also explained why former captain MS Dhoni failed to accelarate the innings towards the end.
“India failed to accelerate as they lost Kohli’s wicket at a crucial moment. By the time Dhoni and Jadhav were batting towards the end the match was already over.
“There were quite a few miscalculations in that chase but to say they deliberately lost the match is wrong.
“If England had lost the match they would have been knocked out of the tournament. Why wouldn’t the Indian team want that? Well, if you are a Pakistani you might not think about this aspect but for the others you must note this point carefully.”
Pakistan's fate of qualifying for the semis depended much on India's winning chances in the game against England. Aakash slammed the former Pakistan cricketers to not look for conspiracy theories and opined that big tournaments are won by playing well and not by depending on the winning probability of other teams.
“I accept India didn’t play well and made mistakes in the match but I won’t accept the claims that India lost deliberately to ensure Pakistan does not progress. I request my Pakistani friends to forget about this. One must win big tournaments by playing well and not by depending on others’ results. Had they not lost to West Indies, they wouldn’t have had to think about these conspiracy theories.
