Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi and teammate Usman Tariq leave the field after Pakistan lost their T20 World Cup game against India (AP Photo)

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi launched a scathing attack on the senior core of the Pakistan national cricket team after their crushing 61-run defeat to India national cricket team in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at R Premadasa Stadium.Led by Suryakumar Yadav, India dominated the Group A clash on Sunday, handing Pakistan a heavy blow and leaving them in a must-win situation against Namibia to have any chance of reaching the Super 8s.

Afridi, speaking on Samaa TV, did not hold back and urged the team management to make bold calls ahead of the crucial fixture. He called for the exclusion of senior players including Babar Azam, Shadab Khan and Shaheen Shah Afridi, stating that they had been given ample opportunities over the years without delivering consistent results. Notably, Shaheen is married to Afridi’s daughter Ansha.“Drop Shaheen, drop Shadab, and drop Babar. Try fresh faces against Namibia and give the new players a chance to build confidence. They’ve been playing for a long time. Whenever we expect them to perform, they don’t. If these senior players aren’t giving us the performances we desire, then play the juniors who are sitting on the bench. What is the difference?”, Afridi said during a Live show.Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha admitted after the match that the spinners failed to deliver on a surface that offered assistance.“We were believing in our spinners, and they had an off day today. Execution was missing in some parts of the game. We were obviously going to always believe our spinners, because they’ve done really well in last six month. And with the batting I think we didn’t start well and in T20 games if we lose 3 or 4 wickets in powerplay, you are always chasing the game,” he said in the post-match presentation ceremony.Salman also criticised the batting unit for not adapting to the conditions.“I think, to be very honest, like in first inning it was a bit tacky. The ball was gripping as well. So, the execution was, I think, missing when it comes to bowling, but I think the pitch better played better in the second inning than first inning. But our bowlers like, we didn’t bowl according to the situation. And when it comes to batting, we didn’t apply ourselves and gave us a chance to go deep in the game,” he said.

Jasprit Bumrah appeals successfully for the wicket of Pakistan’s Saim Ayub. (PTI Photo)

Only remnants of a once-terrific rivalry remain as India show depth and batting smarts to turn tables on Pakistan for runaway 61-run winForget the outside noise. The gulf in class between India and Pakistan is simply enormous at the moment.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Going into the Sunday encounter, Pakistan had a lot of things in their favour. They have been in Lanka for a significant amount of time, played two games on slow pitches and were well adjusted to the conditions. Add to that, they won the toss and after taking the timid call of fielding, even had the dynamite Abhishek Sharma in the first over.

But what happened after that was just a rerun of the remains of a rivalry that once had the cricket world in awe.They ran into Ishan Kishan, who wasn’t probably on top of their planning charts. The left-hander was nowhere close to a T20 World Cup selection when India won the Asia Cup six months ago.A superb Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Jharkhand and Shubman Gill’s loss in T20 form led to the call-up for the 27-year-old and today, he is the toast of the nation.The Premadasa pitch was super slow, the ball was not coming on to the bat, but what Ishan did in a period of 46 balls, of which he faced 39, left India on a very strong footing.Later in the evening, the Indian bowlers had way too much quality and when Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya made it 13/3 in the first three overs, it was all but done.After Bumrah’s burst of pace and accuracy, it was Axar Patel’s stump to stump spell of 2-29 that killed the game. What should give India even bigger satisfaction is the fact that their two spin trumpcards Varun and Kuldeep Yadav didn’t even have to finish their spells to wrap this one up by 61 runs.But this game will be remembered for the way Kishan (77 off 40) batted. He launched into paceman Shaheen Shah Afridi, hitting him for a couple of sixes in the second over. And then, it was his assault on the spinners. The likes of Abrar Ahmed, Shadab Khan didn’t know where to bowl to Ishan, as he held his shape, and generated tremendous power with his cut, pull and sweep shots.The first six overs went for 52, which was significantly above par on this pitch.Pakistan captain Agha made the mistake of not introducing his trump card Usman Tariq early and Ishan kept on creating havoc. There was zero fear in his approach as the shots flew from his bat.It was allrounder Saim Ayub, who finally removed him with a delivery that hurried off just a bit. It was after Ishan’s dismissal that you could see the demons that lay in the pitch.None of the other batters could get going on a consistent basis and Ayub and Tariq took over from the 10th over. Tariq, with his box of tricks kept Surya and Tilak Verma in check as boundaries dried up.To Surya’s credit though, he didn’t try to look for non-existent big shots. Instead, during his 29-ball 32, he kept the scoreboard ticking knowing that 175 would be above par.Tilak and Hardik Pandya were dismissed off consecutive balls by Ayub in the 15th over, but India still had too much depth in the tank.Surya and Dube kept waiting for the right bowlers to take on — in this case Abrar and Afridi — who came back for their second spells. It was another mistake by Agha to try these two later in the innings.