Even before the start of the Asia Cup, the India-Pakistan match was very exciting among the cricket lovers. Rohit Sharma’s team defeated Babar Azam’s team by 5 wickets in the first match of the group stage. Pakistan took revenge by beating India by 5 wickets in a thrilling match between the two teams in Dubai on Sunday.
After this loss, Rohit-Kohli’s performance is being critically analyzed. Exactly where? Why did the team lose? Losing the toss and batting first, India set Pakistan a huge target of 182 runs. Although there was some pressure in the beginning to chase that target, Pakistan got the win thanks to Mohammad Rizwan’s tenacity and Mohammad Nawaz’s stormy innings.
After the match, India captain Rohit said, “It’s a high pressure game we know that. You’ve got to be at it every time. A game like that can take a lot. We were calm even when there was a partnership between Rizwan and Nawaz. But that partnership obviously went a little long and they batted brilliantly. That’s when the match turned.”
However, the Indian captain was not surprised by Pakistan’s victory, but found a positive side. Meanwhile, despite being out of form for many days, Kohli scored half-centuries in two consecutive matches in the tournament. Kohli’s return to form before the T20 World Cup gives hope to Rohit.
But Rohit wanted to learn from the Pakistan match and said, “It’s a good learning for us. I thought it was a good score. Any pitch, any conditions when you get 180 it’s a good score. We got to learn a lot today – what sort of mindset we need to have when defending a score like that. Like I said you’ve got to give credit to Pakistan. They’ve played better than us.”
Meanwhile, India is not getting much time to overcome the pressure of defeat against Pakistan. Rohit’s team will face Sri Lanka in their second Super Four match on Tuesday. Besides, India will play against Afghanistan on Thursday. Let’s see if India gets back to the familiar rhythm after losing against Pakistan.