India suffered a five-wicket loss at the hands of arch-rivals Pakistan in the Asia Cup Super 4 stage in Dubai on Sunday.
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In a recent interaction, Cheteshwar Pujara opened up on the match, saying that the Indian team management should gone in with an extra bowler instead of relying on Hardik Pandya.
“Hardik has been bowling well, but we can’t consider him a fifth bowler. I think expecting four overs from him every time is not correct. However, we didn’t have enough choices because Avesh Khan was ill. In the future, there might be a few changes in the team, and if Hardik continues to play the role of the sixth bowler, it would be better," Pujara was quoted saying during an interaction on ESPNCricinfo.
In fact, Hardik was named Player of the Match in the first clash against Pakistan but the all-rounder failed to replicate his brilliance, conceding 44 runs in his quota of four overs and picking up just one wicket.
Pujara also went on to laud Pakistan for promoting Mohammad Nawaz up the batting order, saying that he proved to be the “X-factor".
Nawaz smashed a 20-ball 42, along with Mohammad Rizwan, who scored 71 off 51 balls, to hit 73 runs in just 35 balls to lead Pakistan to victory.
“I think Pakistan played very well, especially Mohammad Rizwan and Mohammad Nawaz’s promotion in the batting order. He played with a good strike rate which played an X-factor for Pakistan. Our bowling could have been better, but I feel that we could have scored 15-20 more runs on this wicket. It was 190-200 wickets. We didn’t bat well during the middle overs," the India batter added.
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