Former Pakistani pacer has mocked Salman for making the wrong decision at the toss.
Pakistan were nowhere close to the skill sets India showed during the high-octane clash in the Asia Cup 2025 a couple of nights back in Dubai. After their captain, Salman Ali Agha, won the toss, he chose to bat first, a perplexing move, given the conditions during the fixture.
As it turned out, the decision was incorrect, as Pakistan’s batters looked incompetent against high-class spin bowling in helpful conditions, and their inability to rotate strike exacerbated the case. Anyway, batting first was not the right decision because it was humid, as visible by the constant use of towels by bowlers, and dew settled later in the night by the time India came to bat.
Former Pakistani speedster Shoaib Akhtar has mocked Salman for making the wrong decision at the toss, labelling him ‘Einstein’. On Tapmad, the pacer said that Suryakumar explained everything at the toss, such as that dew would settle later on, which turned out to be true, as India made the contest one-sided.
“Suryakumar Yadav ne poori pitch report di hai toss par. Usne kahan, ‘Baad mein dew aayega. Ball bat par accha aata hai tab, humari batting lambi hai. Hum chase hi karna chahte the, hum phele bowling hi karna chahte the, par humare Einstein ne kaha humay pehle batting karni hai. (Suryakumar Yadav gave an entire pitch report at the toss. He said, ‘There will be dew later in the game. Ball comes better on the bat at that time, and our batting lineup is deep. We wanted to bowl first anyway’. But our Einstein said, ‘We will bat first’.)”
Obviously, choosing to bat first meant Pakistan had to deal with the worst batting conditions against a bowling lineup too good for any conditions, but India outclassed them based on skills. Even if the pitch was challenging, their batters had to show application and found more ways to score rather than getting stuck at the crease.
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As a bowling unit, Pakistan’s speedster, Shaheen Shah Afridi, was ineffective, for he went for fuller lengths early on and was smashed by Abhishek Sharma. Spinners bowled better, but India’s batters were too good to contain, even if slow balls gripped more into the surface, and completed the chase in 15.5 overs.
In short, Pakistan would have suffered a similar defeat even if they elected to bowl first, because the skill gap between the two teams is too wide, which has been extending in recent years. For instance, Shaheen erred with his lengths when he should have bowled good-length areas and could have gone for plenty even in the first innings, given Abhishek’s improved range and Shubman Gill’s superior technique to counter movement.
For India, Axar Patel was slotted at No.8, and their batting unit had ample spin hitters to counter Pakistani tweakers in testing conditions and neutralise their threat. Maybe spinners would have found it a bit harder to grip the ball in the second innings, but they are used to bowling with a wet ball, and Pakistan didn’t have any real spin bashers to put them under pressure either.
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