India vs Pakistan Asia Cup 2022: ‘On field dosti gayi bhaad me’, says Ravi Shastri on his friendship with Wasim Akram – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri confirmed that while India and Pakistan players would be friends off the field, they would not think about friendship on the field.

Pakistan ace fast bowler Wasim Akram also had similar thoughts and said that he would not shy about hitting bouncers on batters’ heads even if they were his friends.

Speaking for broadcaster Star Sports Shastri said, “We were friends, and we still are, but on field, dosti gayi bhaad me (do hell with friendship on the field). But I would say that Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis changed ODI cricket. Only they knew reverse swing at that time and they would be too good in the last seven-ten overs. And we had to think how to score runs in death overs as they would make it very difficult.”

Akram responded to Shastri’s comment with a bouncer. “We were friends, but on the field, I would try to hit him on the head. Even Mike Atherton was my friend and I would hit him on the head as well. He would come to me and say, ‘what is wrong with you?’ So as Shaz said, on the field, we would not think of friendship.”

Shastri, speaking about Rohit, added that he is a very experienced captain and he might take several tough decisions in order to confirm the combinations ahead of the T20 World Cup.

“Rohit is a very seasoned captain. He knows what he wants to achieve at the T20 World Cup. I am not saying he will lose here trying to experiment, his primary goal will be to win here. But if he is sure about one player making the World Cup squad, and confused about two other players, he might go with them to get those answers,” Shastri said.

Interestingly, India have brought in Deepak Hooda and Ravi Bishnoi as they had to do away with Ravindra Jadeja due to injury and Avesh Khan due to ill wealth. They have also left out Dinesh Karthik for the match against Pakistan.

Playing XI:

India: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(wk), Hardik Pandya, Deepak Hooda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh

Pakistan:  Mohammad Rizwan(wk), Babar Azam(c), Fakhar Zaman, Khushdil Shah, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah

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