Asia Cup 2023: We were not up to the mark with our batting and bowling – Babar Azam after huge loss against India

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam admitted they were not up to the mark with their batting and bowling after suffering a huge loss of 228 runs against India. This is Pakistan’s biggest loss against the arch-rivals and they could not challenge the Indian team with either bat or ball.

India posted a huge score of 356-2 after centuries from KL Rahul and Virat Kohli. Team India resumed play at 147-2 on Monday and Rahul and Kohli kept converting ones to twos and looked all set for a massive score. Earlier on Sunday, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill added 121 runs for the opening alliance to set the right foundation.

Rahul making his comeback after a long time, was able to hit the strides and scored a fine knock of 111 runs. The flamboyant right-hander proved his mettle and showed why he holds the key in the middle order.

On the other hand, Virat Kohli continued his love affair with ODI cricket, scoring his 47th century in the format. Kohli also became the fastest to 13000 ODI runs, getting to the feat in only 267 innings.

Rahul and Kohli added an unbeaten alliance of 233 runs off just 195 balls as both of them batted at the top of their game.

Meanwhile, Pakistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals and they were skittled out for a paltry score of 128 after Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf could not come out to bat due to their respective niggles. Kuldeep Yadav was the chief destroyer, bagging 5-25 in his fine spell.

Babar Azam said in the post-match presentation, “Weather was not in our hands but we tried our best. We were not up to the mark with our batting and bowling. They (Indian openers) had plans for our bowlers and started well and that was followed up by Virat and Rahul. Jasprit and Siraj bowled well in the first 10 overs and swung the ball both ways, but our batting was not up to the mark.”

Pakistan would have been disappointed with their overall performance as they could not deliver and were dominated in all three departments of the game.

Pakistan will next take on Sri Lanka at the R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Thursday.