Veteran India player Dinesh Karthik stated that the bowling attack of Pakistan are much better than India's bowling. The likes of Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Naseem Shah tormented the Indian batting lineup as they bagged all ten wickets in Kandy on Saturday. Afridi dismissed legendary batters like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in successive overs while Rauf took the wickets of Gill and Iyer. Shaheen ended the game with the figures of 4/35 in his 10 overs off quota while Rauf scalped three wickets. Naseem Shah also sent three Indian batters to the pavilion.
“Shaheen, Haris Rauf, and Naseem can bowl 90+ consistently and all three are very different in nature,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
“Shaheen Shah obviously the left-armer, has an angle to it and brings the ball back in, Naseem Shah swings the ball both ways, Haris is arguably one of the best bowlers right now at the back end of an inning because of his skid and the nasty bouncer that he’s got,” he added.
Karthik also said that as a better he would like to face Indian bowlers including Jasprit Bumrah, Siraj, and Mohammad Shami on flat wickets, rather than the Pakistan pace bowlers.
“For me they are a far more potent attack on flat wickets,” he said.
“If there is something in the pitch then both attacks at all times become very equal but if I had to play an attack I have a feeling, I have a better chance of probably playing Jasprit, Bumrah, Siraj and Shami only because the bounce they’ll get will be slightly lesser than what these three other bowlers can do from Pakistan,” he further added.
India’s opening game of Asia Cup 2023 against Pakistan was called off due to excessive rain as Pakistan could not bat. India who won the toss and opted to bat first ended up scoring 266 runs. It was Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya who revived India’s innings after their top order collapsed. Both batters went on to score their respective half-centuries however they missed out on scoring their hundreds.