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Pakistan exacted Group Stage's revenge with a five-wicket victory against arch-rivals India in the Asia Cup's Super Fours' clash on Sunday (September 4).
In a thrilling contest, riding on a responsible 71 off 51 Pakistan chased down the 182-run target in a last-over drama with five-wickets to spare. But more than the nail-biter match what grabbed everyone's eyes and sparked controversy when Arshdeep dropped Asif Ali's catch in the penultimate over when the batter was yet to open the his run account. Right after getting a reprieve, Asif went on to bludgeon two boundaries and a six to take the game away from India.
Though got a chance to redeem himself as he was handed the onus to bowl the last over. He made a superb comeback as he bowled a splendid final over and kept India in the hunt till the penultimate ball. But ever since the hapless youngster came in radar of the trollers who started blaming Arshdeep for the loss against Pakistan.
Internet trolls, however, were having none of it and decided to target the young cricketer after the defeat, targeting his Sikh identity by branding him ‘Traitor’ and ‘Khalistani’ among other things. “Khalistani” was in fact among the top trends on Twitter in India the morning after the defeat. It brought back memories of the way Mohammed Shami was trolled online after India’s loss to Pakistan in the T20 World Cup — also at the same venue last year.
Meanwhile, in an exclusive interaction with Sports Tak, Sunil Gavaskar came to Arshdeep's rescue and lambasted the trolls who are trolling the young pacer left, right and centre.
Why bother about trolls, Gavaskar on Arshdeep
Gavaskar was also vocal on faceless trolls being given too much importance in Arshdeep Singh's case. Arshdeep missed an easy catch of Asif Ali during the dying moments of the game and was mercilessly trolled with his wikipedia page being vandalised.
"No former cricketer has criticised Arshdeep. Who are these people who are critical of Arshdeep? Why do we need to give credence to them? How many of them can catch the ball that flies into the stands? Rarely anyone. So how does their comments matter," Gavaskar said.
Meanwhile, several other cricketers came to Arshdeep's rescue including former Pakistan skipper Mohammad Hafeez, former India ace spinner Harbhajan Singh and former India pacer Irfan Pathan. Even Virat Kohli threw his weight behind the young pacer in the post match press conference.
Hafeez requested fans to not 'humiliate' the youngster as anyone could make mistakes.
“My request to all Indian team fans. In sports we make mistakes as we r human. Please don't humiliate anyone on these mistakes. @arshdeepsinghh,” Hafeez tweeted.
My request to all Indian team fans. In sports we make mistakes as we r human. Please don’t humiliate anyone on these mistakes. @arshdeepsinghh
— Mohammad Hafeez (@MHafeez22) September 4, 2022
Stop criticising young @arshdeepsinghh No one drop the catch purposely..we are proud of our 🇮🇳 boys .. Pakistan played better.. shame on such people who r putting our own guys down by saying cheap things on this platform bout arsh and team.. Arsh is GOLD🇮🇳
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) September 4, 2022
Arshdeep is a strong character. Stay that way boy. @arshdeepsinghh
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) September 4, 2022
When a player is down is when you have to reach out to him so he emerges stronger. Saying nasty things about Arshdeep does nobody any good. We have all made mistakes under pressure. This is the time to back him. He will win India a lot of matches
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 5, 2022
