Former India pace bowler Zaheer Khan has said India captain Virat Kohli has missed a trick by not opening their bowling attack with Team India speedster Jasprit Bumrah in their T20 World Cup 2021 game against Pakistan. While defending a total of 151 in Dubai, Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled the first over whereas Mohammed Shami did the second. By the time Bumrah came in the third over, Pakistan’s openers had settled their eyes in.

According to Khan, Pakistan outplayed India in all departments on Sunday, India, perhaps, made the blunder by not using their bowling trump card Bumrah well.

In a discussion on Cricbuzz, Zaheer Khan said: “You have your plans before the game, but once you are in the game, you’ve just got to go with it – maybe change certain things that you had planned. Maybe you could have used Bumrah differently. By the time the game finished, you had under-utilised Bumrah.”

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He continued: “They could have gone for their trump card right up front rather than getting him into the game in the third over. Starting with him might have turned things around a bit. But these are things in hindsight. At times, you stick to the strategy which you have made. I am sure the think-tank in the innings break would have thought about it and chosen otherwise. But who would have expected that the two openers would just carry the innings through.”

Jasprit Bumrah ended up bowling three overs where he conceded 22 runs whereas Kumar gave away 25 in his three overs a swell. On the other hand, Shami ended up giving 43 runs in 3.5 overs. As far as their batting is concerned, both the openers – Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul got out very cheaply. But Virat Kohli (57) and Rishabh Pant (39) steadied the ship and managed to post 151 in their allotted 20 overs.

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“The dew factor did play a role. Having said that, when you know that dew is going to be a factor, you’ve got to have that extra cushion of 20-25 runs on the board, just to stay on top of things. But today wasn’t the case. Right throughout the game, you saw Pakistan in control of the game. They showed the intent, and India was always trying to catch up in this particular game, which was pretty evident,” Zaheer Khan concluded.

India will next take on New Zealand in Dubai on October 31.