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Former Pakistan head coach Waqar Younis has highlighted the lack of pace in India's bowling lineup after the 10-wicket loss to Jos Buttler’s England in T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final. Waqar remembered his time commentating during Asia Cup 2022 where there was talk about India's team combination and how they did not pay heed to the lack of a genuine pacer in the side.
“Wasim bhai, I don't know if you remember. Recently Asia Cup me jab ham log the, unke commentators bhi the (their commentators were there as well). They had long shows, were talking about team combinations and all. Uss discussions me ham log bhi the (We were there during their discussions as well), we were talking about our side. And they were just more keen on bowlers who control the game. Just bowl good seam, which is good, you need 1-2 bowlers like that. But we were insisting that you need to look into pace,” Waqar said on A Sports.
Waqar talked about one bowling option that Indian selectors ignored despite Jasprit Bumrah getting ruled out due to injury.
“You're going to Australia, there's going to be bounce and you need variations. Nobody talked about the (Umran) Malik guy, who had clocked 156kph. He might be expensive on odd day, but farak daalti hai pace (the pace makes the difference),” Waqar opined.
Malik made his T20I debut against Ireland earlier this year and showed some signs of excellence when he managed to defend 17 runs in the last over on a batting-friendly track. Many believed Malik would have been lethal like South Africa’s Anrich Nortje, Pakistan’s Haris Rauf and England’s Mark Wood on bouncy pitches of Australia.
At Adelaide Oval, Bhuvneshwar Kumar got some swing with the new ball but were dominated by England’s opening duo as they scored 63 runs in the powerplay overs in run chase of 169 to assert their dominance early on.
Apart from Younis, former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar also pointed out the absence of express fast bowlers that was visible in the semi-final loss.
