Nasser Hussain - India-Australia
Nasser Hussain. Photo Credit: (Sky Sports)

Former England National Cricket Team captain Nasser Hussain has revealed that he received heavy criticism on Twitter for criticising India’s top order for playing slow and not Pakistan’s top order that follows a similar batting template as India in T20Is.

Indian openers – Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul – and Pakistan openers – Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan – didn’t perform very well in the recently concluded ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. All 4 players didn’t look comfortable while facing the new-ball bowlers and they failed to provide good starts to their respective teams in the marquee tournament. Several cricket pundits criticised the Indian and Pakistani top orders for playing cautiously, but Hussain only slammed Team India.

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T20 World Cup 2022
Photo Credit: (ANI)

Now, the former England captain has come up with an explanation behind his criticism for the top order of the Men In Blue and not for the Men In Green. He said that India’s top-3 – Rohit, Rahul and Kohli – can afford to play aggressive cricket as they have star players like Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya in the middle order. Nasser Hussain added that Babar and Rizwan don’t have much choice but to bat conservatively as Team Pakistan don’t have a strong middle order.

“Twitter was going ballistic saying ‘how you go on about India and not Pakistan’. It’s a completely different thing. Pakistan don’t have the batting depth as we saw in the last few overs in the final. They don’t have players like Suryakumar Yadav, or Hardik Pandya to come in and smash it,” Hussain said on Sky Sports.

Pakistan have the best bowling line-up – Nasser Hussain

Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain (Image Credit: Twitter

Nasser Hussain further said that Pakistan have got a great bowling unit and they are in the game even when the batters don’t perform very well, which is not the case with India. He also said that India have got many talented cricketers and they just need a personality like Eoin Morgan to inspire them to play an attacking brand of cricket.

“Also, Pakistan have the best bowling line-up. So, if they get par, even less than par, they are still in the game. If India get par against England on a pitch like Adelaide, you are out of the game. One thing is for certain, India have players. The problem is not the players, it’s the mindset. They need an Eoin Morgan-type character, who would say go in and smash it for 20 overs,” he added.

Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain (Image Credit: Twitter

Also Read: ICC T20 World Cup 2022: “It Is Disappointing Moment, But We All Have To Move On” – Ravichandran Ashwin On India’s Semi-final Loss vs England

 

Sonanchal Gautam is the Assistant Content Manager at Cricketaddictor. He is a professional Wrestling and Hip-hop enthusiast.