Pakistan have forced people to stand and take notice of them: Ashish Nehra

Former India pacer Ashish Nehra reckons that Pakistan has forced everyone to take notice of their performance with a thumping victory against India on October 24. Going into the Dubai fixture, Pakistan’s record in World Cups read 0-12 against India, but they made up for it to an extent by handing their Asian rivals their first-ever 10-wicket defeat in T20I history.

India were kept to 151/7 after being invited to bat first, with Shaheen Shah Afridi scalping three wickets in a sensational spell throughout the game. During the chase, both openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan slammed unbeaten and dominating half-centuries to gun down the target with all wickets intact.

“Those who weren’t already considering them favourites to reach the semi-finals were underestimating Pakistan. And you are talking about T20s. In their pool, there are three strong teams India, Pakistan, and New Zealand. But in the T20s, anyone can beat anyone. The manner in which Pakistan won, people will stand up and take notice,” Ashish Nehra said while speaking on Cricbuzz.

Speaking about the impact of dew in the game, Nehra said: “The ball had also gotten a little wet because of the dew. And the way Pakistan started, it filled them with confidence and both of them batted very cleanly. I just remember one incident when Mohammad Rizwan played a sweep shot off Varun Chakravarthy and it went for a six that was the only shot where it felt like the batter has taken a risk. Other than that, they played risk-free batting.

“And with the dew factor and the pitch got better to bat on, they took full advantage of that. So you just have to praise the way Pakistan played today,” Nehra said when he was asked if Indian bowlers could have performed better.

“About Virat Kohli’s captaincy, the only thing I would say is he could have played Mohammed Shami for two consecutive overs (in the Powerplay), but it is also not easy for the captain because there were no wickets in the first three overs, so he tried Varun Chakravarthy also who can be an X-factor, but he went back to Shami and then gave the sixth over to Bhuvneshwar Kumar. But basically, Pakistan did not give India a chance. From their bowling to their fielding, to their batting, they played a 10/10 match and dominated,” Nehra said.