Former Pakistani wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal was full of praise as India thrashed England by seven wickets at the Eden Gardens on January 22. Despite being without the services of their senior players, the Men in Blue floored the tourists in a show of brute dominance. This very feature of India’s dominating win stood out the most for Akmal as he couldn’t help but praise them for their swashbuckling all-round show.
Akmal observed that none of the members from the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 featured in India’s playing Xl for the first T20I at Eden Gardens. Despite referring to them as India “C” team, the former Pakistani player advised England to revamp their game plan if they were to come anywhere close to challenging the might of the home side in this series.
“In my view, there’s no Kuldeep, no Jaiswal, none of the players who featured in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. This, to me, feels like India’s ‘C’ team. Just imagine what the line-up will look like when the ‘A’ team takes the field. Any opposition will have to put in a massive effort to beat this Indian side. That’s why England need to approach the challenge differently. They will need to show respect not only for the Indian team but also for the playing conditions.”
Akmal urges Pakistan to take a leaf out of India’s book
Kamran Akmal was awestruck to see how India crippled the two-time T20 World Cup champions without the inclusion of their star players like Bumrah, Kuldeep, or Jaiswal. One could only imagine the mayhem the Indian unit could inflict on the opposition if star players were drafted into the squad.
Akmal was also impressed with the way the Indian management went about testing their bench strength and giving their backup players a go on the big stage. But at the same time, Akmal also criticized the way Pakistan lost to South Africa both in the T20I and Test series and drew a comparison with how India managed to thrash South Africa at home by 4-1 despite missing some big names in their squad.
“Giving backup players a chance to play against smaller teams is an effective strategy. It helps boost their confidence, especially in T20 cricket. If you look at India’s performance in white-ball cricket, where have they failed? Which team hasn’t had a tough time against them? For instance, they won 4-1 in South Africa. Meanwhile, we (Pakistan) lost to them in T20Is. But that wasn’t even India’s first-choice team—it was their C team. This ‘C’ team is performing as if it were the main team, with every player stepping up.”
Varun Chakravarthy was adjudged Player of the Match for bagging outstanding bowling figures of 3-23 which included major scalps of Buttler, Brook, and Livingstone whereas, Abhishek Sharma was in scintillating form with the bat and slammed a brutal 79 (34) to power India to a crushing seven-wicket win inside 13 overs.
