Harsha Bhogle Gave A Stern Advice To Babar Azam Ahead Of IND vs PAK Clash: Since the start of 2017, 7 opening pairs have recorded more than 1000 T20I runs in opening partnership. Pakistan’s opening pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan has the highest average of 56 of them all, but their run rate of 8.15 is the slowest of all seven.
This is what renowned commentator Harsha Bhogle reflected in his assessment of the Pakistani opening combo ahead of the mouth-watering India-Pakistan Asia Cup 2022 clash on Sunday.
Babar and Rizwan’s counterparts today – Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have a only a slight lower opening average (55.26), but Rohit and Rahul’s opening partnership have come at a terrific run rate of 9.47, the second-best of the seven in this list.
Harsha Bhogle reckons Babar Azam will have to bat faster now
Bhogle took to Twitter on Sunday morning to opine about Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan’s opening combo, the one which chased down 152 with ease against India last year at the T20 World Cup.
Bhogle said that whereas it is quite comfortable in deciding the tempo of one’s innings when chasing as the target dictates your approach, it is difficult to plan out the intent when batting first.
“The Babar-Rizwan combination is an interesting one. They play more balls but score slower than the others. When they chase, the target determines the approach they need to take but when they bat first, the runs they make can come at the expense of speed,” Harsha Bhogle tweeted.
Harsha Bhogle asserted that the in-form Pakistni skipper, Babar Azam, though will need to keep the run rate in mind when batting first and that could prove significant in Pakistan’s eventual total.
“But Babar is in such incredible form, and possessed of wonderful skills, that you would imagine he can turn that around. So if Pakistan bat first today, keep an eye on the run-rate acceleration and, as an outcome, see if they leave runs behind at the end of their innings,” the commentator added.
Check out Bhogle’s tweets on Babar-Rizwan:
But Babar is in such incredible form, and possessed of wonderful skills, that you would imagine he can turn that around. So if Pakistan bat first today, keep an eye on the run-rate acceleration and, as an outcome, see if they leave runs behind at the end of their innings.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) August 28, 2022
In Asia Cups, India have a superior 8-5 win-loss record over Pakistan, and since 2010, India have won five of the six Asia Cup contests between the two sides.
Here are the squads of India and Pakistan:
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan. Standbys: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Hasan Ali, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir.
