Team India suffered a major setback at the start of their T20 World Cup campaign, as they lost to arch-rivals Pakistan by 10 wickets in Dubai on Sunday. It was India’s first loss to Pakistan in a World Cup match in any format after winning 12 straight games.

Defending 152, Indian bowlers were unable to dismiss Pakistan openers Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam, who scored 79* and 68*, respectively, to finish off the chase in 17.5 overs.

Speaking after the match on Cricbuzz, former India fast bowler Zaheer Khan pointed out a major flaw in India captain Virat Kohli’s gameplan. Kohli had started the attack with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami, but Zaheer Khan said that Kohli should have employed Jasprit Bumrah with the new ball.

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“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,” Zaheer said.

Bumrah was asked to bowl the 18th over when Pakistan still needed 17 runs to win but at the last moment Kohli decided to go with Shami, which backfired as the right-arm seamer went for 17 runs in just 4 balls. 

Bumrah did not complete his quota and ended with figures of 3 overs none for 22.

“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,” he added.

“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, ” he further said.

“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 obvious,” Zaheer signed off.