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Defending champions India have qualified for the Super 4 round of the 2022 Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates by winning both their matches in the league round. But in the pressure-filled Super 4 round, India lost at key moments as usual and lost to arch-rivals Pakistan. Poor performance and wrong team selection by key players including Rohit Sharma played a major role in the defeat in that crucial match. Especially when Deepak Hooda, who was brought in as a replacement for injured Ravindra Jadeja, other bowlers like Sahal and Pandya faltered, skipper Rohit Sharma did not give him a chance to bowl even an over.
Similarly, in this series, as 2 fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel were out due to injury, senior bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had to act responsibly in their place, scored 19 runs in the 19th over and sealed the victory. Moreover, Avesh Khan, who was selected in place of those 2 main bowlers, was dismissed in the 3rd match as he gave away runs in the first 2 matches.
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Sotapiya Selection Committee:
It is here that the selection committee’s biggest mistake is revealed. Because there is no fast bowler on the bench to replace the abruptly dropped Avesh Khan. Because of that, Hardik Pandya, who is already suffering from injury, has to act as the 3rd fast bowler. In this case, former Indian player Saba Karim has accused that the selectors who selected the Asia Cup team made a mistake by selecting only 3 full-time fast bowlers.
He pointed out that the selectors made a mistake again by choosing Akshar Patel instead of Deepak Sahar, who was the first player in the list of reserve players that had already been announced, despite having a golden opportunity to correct that mistake when Jadeja went out with an injury. Because he already has spin bowler Ravichandran Ashwin on the bench, he talked about it in a YouTube show as follows.
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“In the first two matches we saw how well the fast bowlers performed in the impact of the win. That way the selectors should have chosen Deepak Sahar instead of Jadeja. Because they had already picked only 3 full-time fast bowlers. Also we have already selected 3 spinners. This shows that the selectors have acted lazily without much thought while announcing the substitutes.”
“The selectors have made a mistake in not deciding that a fast bowler is ready on the bench in that way. Had they done it right they could have added another fast bowler to the 11 while dropping Avesh Khan. Also the selection committee has directly selected 5 bowlers and Pandya as the 6th bowler. But here they have used Pandya as the 5th bowler. This has also put pressure on Pandya, who has not been active as the No. 5 bowler since his return from injury,” he criticized.
Virat Kohli’s coach Rajkumar, who has expressed the same opinion, spoke about it in the program as follows. “Deepak Chahar should have been chosen as Jadeja’s replacement instead of Axar Patel. He is a wicket-taking specialist bowler in T20 cricket. He swings the ball especially in the power play overs and takes early wickets. If only he had played, Pakistan would not have been able to chase those big runs,” he said.
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