The England cricket team has taken the lead by 1-0 in the five match T20 series by defeating team India in the first T20I match comfortably by 8 wickets with 27 balls remaining in their innings. The match was played at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, and the visitors decided to bowl first after winning the toss.
The decision was absolutely right as the England bowlers bowled superbly and restricted the Indian squad at 124/7 in the stipulated 20 overs. There was a time when it looked difficult for the Indian team to cross the 100 mark as they lost Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and skipper Virat Kohli at the score of 20 but it was a gritty knock of Shreyas Iyer (67) along with some useful contributions by Rishabh Pant (21) and Hardik Pandya (19) which helped the hosts in putting up a decent total on the score board.
However, the target was pretty less for the visitors as they achieved it in 15.3 overs with 8 wickets in hand and Jason Roy (49) was the highest scorer for the England side. Jofra Archer was adjudged as the player of the match for the three dismissals that he did.
After the match, the Indian team was slammed for their poor batting performance and many former cricketers also came up with their opinions in regard to the match. While some former cricketers felt that resting Rohit Sharma was a bad decision, Virat Kohli’s poor form was a concern for several others as he got out for a duck in this match but for Irfan Pathan, it was something else because of which the Indian side lost the match.
The former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan took to the micro-blogging site Twitter and wrote that the reason behind India’s defeat was pace according to him. Irfan Pathan tweeted, “What was the reason India lost the first t20 vs England? I think PACE was the difference”.
What was the reason India lost the first t20 vs England ? I think PACE was the difference
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) March 13, 2021
As soon as Irfan Pathan shared the tweet, many cricket fans started posting their opinion. However, there was one user who decided to troll Irfan by stating that he had no pace. The user tweeted, “Boss, you never had pace”.
Boss, you never had PACE.
— extremist (@extremist) March 13, 2021
The former cricketer was in no mood to remain silent and he responded with a perfect reply that read, “You never played for India yet you talking to a guy who had swing :)”
You never played for India yet you talking to a guy who had swing:)
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) March 13, 2021
Irfan Pathan has represented India in 29 test matches in which he has taken 100 wickets, 120 ODIs in which he has taken 173 wickets and in 24 T20Is that he has played, he has taken 28 wickets. As far as the IPL is concerned, the former Indian pacer has played 103 matches in which he has made 80 dismissals.
Do you agree with Irfan that pace was the difference in India-England first T20I match? Let us know your opinion.