Rohit Sharma put on a remarkable display, hammering the Pakistan bowlers all over the park, leaving them bewildered.
The explosive opener amassed 86 runs from just 63 balls, featuring six fours and an equal number of sixes. Pakistan's bowlers attempted to target Rohit with short-pitched deliveries, but the hitman was in exceptional form, dispatching them for impressive sixes.
Akram disapproved of the tactics employed by Pakistan's pacers, insisting that chest-height bouncers had no place in this situation.
"You have bowled bouncers at chest height. Rohit Sharma is not 6'5. If you've to bowl the bouncers, bowl at him face height and that too slightly outside off so that he pulls and there is fine leg and square leg. If you bowl bouncers at chest height, there is only one place for it – stands," Akram expressed during an interview with A News.
Moreover, Akram commented on Mohammad Rizwan's dismissal, where Jasprit Bumrah outsmarted him with a sharp slower delivery that moved back in and struck the stumps.
"Everything was finishing within the stumps, and there was the slow ball against the set batsman. (On Rizwan's wicket) Any batsman would have got out on this kind of delivery. It nipped back and then pitched, held its line, and just clipped his off-stump," he added.
During the same conversation, Misbah-ul-Haq, another former Pakistan captain, criticized the Pakistan batters for grappling with a recurring issue in recent years.
"It's simple. When you talk about Pakistan's problems, if you look back at the Asia Cup and the 2019 World Cup, one thing is common: we have no clue when we play on slow pitches. We get stuck against spin," he observed.
Misbah-ul-Haq pointed out that the cautious approach against fast bowlers places immense pressure on the batters, which eventually leads to errors against spinners.
"Even we don't take on fast bowlers; we don't take on the bowling attack; we wait, and it leads to insurmountable pressure, which results in mistakes and wickets," he explained.
The discussion shed light on some of the challenges Pakistan faced in the high-stakes match against their arch-rivals, India, in the ongoing ODI World Cup.
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