India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss against Pakistan at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium and decided to bat first.
After plenty of concerns about a delayed start due to the forecasted rain on Saturday in Kandy, the match finally got underway at its scheduled time. Even with rain and dark clouds imminent, Rohit Sharma decided to bat first in order to put Pakistan under pressure first by putting a big total on the board.
For a while the Indian fans had been anticipating what would be India’s starting XI against Pakistan. Ishan Kishan was set to come in the XI after KL Rahul didn’t travel to Sri Lanka with the rest of the team due to what is being said as a “minor niggle”.
But the fans had been moreoverly thinking about what would be India’s bowling combination. Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya were certainties. And Mohammed Siraj had, too, forced himself into the starting Xi on the sheer weight of his terrific new-ball performances in the past year – he’s been one of the best, arguably the best, new-ball bowlers in ODIs since 2022.
This left India to pick one between Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, and Axar Patel. The Indian team management, headed by skipper Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid, went with Shardul Thakur over Mohammed Shami and Axar.
This triggered a lot of fans who had their eyebrows up. Shami is clearly a better and more experienced pacer than Shardul Thakur, but Thakur provides some batting cushion. This has been the reason for India backing Thakur in all formats. This was met with criticism from the fans and even commentator Sanjay Manjrekar, who said that everyone talks about batting depth – which Thakur provides – but noone talks about bowling depth. Fans also felt that the bowling got a bit weaker with Shami not playing.
Here are the reactions of fans about Rohit Sharma’s decision to pick Shardul Thakur over Mohammed Shami:
Sanjay Manjrekar said, "Mohammad Shami would've been more threatening to Pakistan than Shardul Thakur. You talk about batting depth, but bowling depth matters too". pic.twitter.com/p9N3gBsHIU
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) September 2, 2023
Shardul Thakur opted over Mohammed Shami in quest of runs lower down the order. What's your take? Good/ bad decision? #INDvsPAK #AsiaCup23 pic.twitter.com/Sw7GQ9Vwki
— Amol Karhadkar (@karhacter) September 2, 2023
I'd have bowled first for sure with more weather around. Shardul over Shami.. Well kind of expected though I'd have taken the other route in backing the best bowlers, which India will have to at some point.
— Saurabh Malhotra (@MalhotraSaurabh) September 2, 2023
MC Lord ko kyo khilaya in place of Shami, I knew they would do this blunder 🤬
— Udit (@udit_buch) September 2, 2023
It is a proven fact that Muslim players have always performed extraordinary against Pakistan be it Irfan, Munaf, Zaheer etc.
Dropping shami for Thakur because of his identity is a big setback to ICT.
I hope it doesn’t affect Siraj performance
— Dr Nimo Yadav Commentary (@niiravmodi) September 2, 2023
https://twitter.com/rajdeepcric/status/1697899627989839923?s=20
You can always trust Rahul Dravid to screw up with selections in big tournaments. How does it make sense to have Shardul in place of Shami? This batting depth logic is nonsense #INDvPAK #AsiaCup2023
— Vishesh Roy (@vroy38) September 2, 2023
Teams:
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan(w), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Pakistan (Playing XI): Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf
