World Cup 2023: India’s plan was to not give Pakistan a chance in any way, says Sunil Gavaskar

Legendary Sunil Gavaskar reckons India’s plan was to not give Pakistan a chance in any way after their convincing seven-wicket victory at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Saturday. Team India outplayed the Babar Azam-led team in all three departments of the game.

The Men in Green was skittled out for only 191 runs after they were put into bat by Rohit Sharma. In fact, Pakistan was motoring along at 155-2 but then lost 8-36 as they could not even manage 200 runs on the board. The visitors kept losing wickets at regular intervals after a steady partnership of 81 runs between Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.

India was brilliant with the ball with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, and Hardik Pandya taking two wickets apiece.

Bumrah returned with figures of 2-19 as he accounted for Mohammad Rizwan and Shadab Khan. On the other hand, Rohit Sharma continued from where he left off in Delhi, scoring a blistering knock of 86 runs off just 63 balls. Rohit once again oozed his class and played his favorite pull shot with aplomb against Pakistan’s pacers.

“Having dismissed Pakistan for 191, the plan was to not give them a chance in any way. The main danger was Shaheen Shah Afridi because if he could get 2-3 early wickets then that could cause a bit of panic in the team. However, we’ve seen how India recovered against Australia,” said Gavaskar while speaking to Star Sports.

The Little Master lauded Rohit Sharma for showing intent against Shaheen Shah Afridi, smacking the lanky fast bowler to boundary on the first ball.

“So, the first ball that Rohit faced, on the pads swinging in and he just flicked it aerially for a lovely boundary, off the middle of the bat. One bounce and into the fence. So that was showing intent. They were not going to be over-awed by his record against us,” Gavaskar added.

Rohit was outfoxed by Afridi with a slower ball and Gavaskar added the Indian captain could have scored another century if he had carried on.

“Rohit got out to a clever slow delivery otherwise he should have got another hundred. This is what happens when you have so many 70s and 80s. This time the bowler got him out but most times he gets himself out in the 70s and 80s otherwise he could have another 8-10 hundreds under his belt,” said Gavaskar.

India will next take on Bangladesh at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune on Thursday.