"Maar maar ke bhurta nikaal diya"- Shoaib Akhtar slams Indian bowling after embarrasing defeat to England in T20 World Cup semi-final
Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar was baffled by India's performance on the field against England in the T20 World Cup semi-final at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday, November 10.
Captain Jos Buttler (80*) and opening partner Alex Hales (86*) put up a record stand of 170 runs and thumped the Men in Blue by 10 wickets with four overs to spare. It was an embarrassing bowling performance by India as they simply had no answer to the carnage from the opposition openers.
In a video on his YouTube channel, here's what Akhtar had to say about the Men in Blue's bowling line-up in the semi-final:
"Alex Hales unleashed himself on India like a hailstorm and proved that they had no plan on a flat pitch. Their bowlers didn't have express pace and there were no cut-to-role spinners. They entered the game with confused planning. Maar maar ke bhurta nikaal diya (They were thrashed to the limits)."
Apart from Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel, all bowlers used by Rohit Sharma had an economy rate of greater than 11.
"There was no aggression at all" - Shoaib Akhtar on India's body language
Shoaib Akhtar feels the Men in Blue were so shell-shocked by England's counter-attack that they almost gave up after the powerplay itself. The former speedster was disappointed that the fielding side didn't try to use different angles and didn't even try to intimidate the opposition to make a comeback.
170/0
A figure thats going to disturb for times to come. Tough game India.
On this, Akhtar stated:
"There was no aggression at all and it looked as if they had given up after just 5-6 overs in the field. They don't deserve to go to the final with such a bowling line-up."
This embarrassing loss to England has certainly raised quite a few questions about the future of some of the senior players in the team. Only time will tell whether the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravichandran Ashwin will feature regularly in the T20I side going forward.
This defeat will certainly sting the Indian men's cricket team and it will probably take some time to let it sink in.
England, meanwhile, will be readying themselves to take on Pakistan in the T20 World Cup final at the MCG on Sunday, November 13.