The Indian cricket team has managed to enter the semi-finals of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 which is being played in USA and West Indies and tomorrow (27 June 2024), India will face England in the second semi-final which will be played at Guyana National Stadium.
India’s last Super-Eight match was against Australia which India won by 24 runs as the Aussies could manage only 181/7 in their 20 overs while chasing the target of 206 runs. The Indian skipper Rohit Sharma was adjudged as the Player of the Match for his superb knock of 92 runs for which he played only 41 deliveries and in his innings, he smashed 7 fours & 8 sixes.
As far as the bowling is concerned, Arshdeep Singh was the leading wicket-taker with 3 wickets in his 4 overs.
However, the former Pakistani cricketer Inzamam-ul-Haq has made a controversial statement on a TV show, he feels that if Arshdeep Singh was able to reverse swing the ball in the 15th over, then it means some serious work has been done on the ball. In simple words, he wanted to imply that the Indian team is indulging in ball-tampering and Inzamam’s former teammate Salim Malik who was present in the discussion also supported his statement.
Inzamam said, “Arshdeep Singh when he was bowling the 15th over, the ball was reversing. Isn’t it too early (for reverse swing) with the new ball? This means the ball was ready for reverse swing by the 12th or the 13th over, Umpires should keep their eyes open to these things.”
Salim Malik quickly chipped in with, “Inzy, I always say this, eyes are kept shut when it comes to some teams, and India is one of those teams. I remember in Zimbabwe, when Wasim (Akram) was bowling, he made it wet, and we all were surprised at it; as in how come one side was wet, and when I went and complained I was fined quite heavily.”
Interestingly, Salim Malik is the first player to get banned from all form of crickets after he was found guilty of match-fixing in 2000.
Inzamam further said that things would have been very different if any Pakistani bowler had done reverse swing. In his words, “If it was Pakistani bowlers (reverse swinging the ball), this would have been a big issue (shor mach jaata). We know reverse swing very well and if Arshdeep can come in the 15th over and start reversing the ball, it means some serious work had been done before.”
He further said, “Because for reverse swing … look Bumrah can do it, because of his action; but for some bowlers – their action and their speed, the ball has to be in that perfect condition and prepared well (to reverse). It could be that the wicket was hard and rough, that could be the reason (for the ball getting scruffed up on one side), but these things have to be noticed.”
Here is the video of the discussion:
https://x.com/Usama7/status/1805644534132490345
Click to watch this video directly on X
As far as the Pakistani team is concerned, it got knocked out in the group stage only after losing matches to USA and India.
What is your take on the statements made by the two former Pakistani cricketers? Let us know your views in this regard.
