Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar named the loss of India against Bangladesh as a ‘great wake-up call’.on Friday, India lost their last match of the Super 4 stage against Bangladesh. India played with a changed XI and rested seniors in this match. Akhtar called it a Wake-up call for India before the Asia Cup final India will learn a lot from the mistakes they have made against Bangladesh.
The match overview:
On Friday, India faced Bangladesh with a change playing XI. seniors were rested for this game. In the start, Bangladesh was not looking dominating. But Bangladesh skipper Shakib-al-Hasan took the innings to a different level. He scored a much-needed inning of 80 runs for the team. Towhid Hridoy also made a half-century. At the end of the innings, Bangladesh put 265 on the board and set a target of 266 for India.
In the second innings, India didn’t have an impressive start. Skipper Rohit Sharma got out on a duck. Tilak Varma and Ishan Kishan didn’t perform well. KL Rahul and Surya Kumar didn’t contribute much. But Shubhman Gill played an excellent innings of 121 runs in 133 balls. That innings contained 8 boundaries and 5 over boundaries. Axar Patel, being his perfect companion played a valuable innings of 42 runs. Despite those fighting knocks India lost the match by 6 runs.
Akhtar’s comment:
Before the big day, Shoaib Akhtar said,” We were not expecting that India would lose to a team like Bangladesh but they did. It was an embarrassing defeat. Pakistan lost to Sri Lanka. They are out of Asia Cup, which is an even bigger embarrassment. India are still in the final. All is not lost for them. It was a great wake-up call for them to come back harder and make sure they secure victory in the finals but that will only happen if they play well. Ye khala ji ka ghar nehi hai jaha pe India jake araam se jeet legi.”
On Sunday India will face Sri Lanka in the final. Sri Lanka was the champion of the previous edition of the Asia Cup. Both teams will play with their all-strength no-name title. That will be a big boost for the winning team before the World Cup and the runner-up will learn from the mistakes before the biggest tournament.
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