The India-Pakistan Super 4 Asia Cup encounter had its share of verbal altercations between the players. Shaibzada Farhan celebrated his fifty by holding his bat akin to a machine gun. Haris Rauf, the Pakistan fast bowler, had a heated exchange with the crowd, where he was seen making the infamous ‘6-0’ gesture.
Haris and Shaheen Afridi were also involved in verbal altercations with Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill, the Indian openers.
So, what does Ryan ten Doeschate, the assistant coach of the Indian team, think about how his side responded to Pakistan’s aggression?
“Let me first say, the amount of pressure that’s been heaped on the players because of the situation, it’s very difficult to control your behaviour,” Ten Doeschate said in the presser. “I did see some of the things Haris did and that’s not our concern.
“Like I said earlier, we’re really proud of how the guys have carried themselves, they’ve fought fire with their bats in the field. Other teams, I’m sure they have issues with some of the things we’ve done. But from our side, we’re delighted with how our guys have carried themselves in the tournament,” he added.
He also commented on Farhan’s actions. “Given the situation, you can see why guys are behaving (like that) and what they are trying to portray. But, like I said, our boys were focused on how we wanted to behave.
“But, I think we stuck really well to cricket. It would have been easy to lose our minds, given the celebratory gestures and some of the words during the game from the Pakistan bowling unit,” he said.
Jasprit Bumrah, the Indian pace spearhead, hasn’t been at his best in the tournament. In the game versus Pakistan, he seemed to have lost a hint of nip and gave away 45 runs.
The Indian management, though, seem to be reasonably happy with Bumrah’s bowling. Ten Doeschate also indicated that the number of overs he bowled in this Asia Cup would help him to build his loads for the Test series versus the West Indies.
“Jasprit Bumrah will be bowling around 24 overs in this tournament (Asia Cup) and that’s a good amount of overs to be Test match ready as we play a Test next Thursday,” said Ten Doeschate.
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