In their opening match of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022, the Rohit Sharma-led Indian team is up against Pakistan in Melbourne on Sunday (October 23). India won the toss and elected to field first, and thanks to the outstanding performances of Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya, India was able to restrict Men in Green to 159 runs in 20 overs for the loss of eight wickets.Arshdeep and Hardik both picked three wickets each for 32 and 30 runs respectively in their four overs. In addition to Hardik and Arshdeep, the other two seamers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami, each dismissed one Pakistani batter.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has received criticism for his poor bowling at the death in recent matches, impressed on Sunday in Melbourne, conceding only 22 runs in his four overs. He dismissed danger looking Shaheen Afridi in the last over to get his only wicket of the match. Afridi was caught and bowled by Bhuvneshwar on the second ball of the 20th over
And by removing Afridi, Bhuvneshwar reached the number one position in the list of highest wicket-takers by an Indian bowler in T20I matches. Afridi’s dismissal was his 86th in 80 matches. He leapfrogged Yuzvendra Chahal to take sole ownership of the number one position. Chahal is now second on the list with 85 wickets to his name from 69 matches.
The other players in the list include Jasprit Bumrah, who is at number three with 70 wickets from 60 matches, followed by Ravichandran Ashwin and Hardik Pandya, who have 66 and 57 wickets to their names, respectively.
Of India’s top five wicket takers, three – Bhuvneshwar, Ashwin, and Pandya – were in action on Sunday against Pakistan, but surprisingly, there was no place for Chahal in the playing XI.
