Asia Cup 2022: Irfan Pathan takes dig at Waqar Younis after ‘Big relief for India’ tweet – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Former Indian swing bowler Irfan Pathan said that it is a relief for other teams that Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel are not a part of India’s squad for the 2022 Asia Cup.

Incidentally, this comes after Waqar Younis tweeted that Shaheen Afridi missing out on the tournament is a big relief for Indian top-order batters, and hence Irfan’s tweet seems like a sarcastic response to Younis’s statement.

Pathan on Twitter wrote, “It’s a relief of other teams that Bumrah and Harshal aren’t playing this Asia cup! (sic)”

Bumrah was ruled out of the Asia Cup owing to a back injury at the time of the squad announcement. The BCCI wanted him to be fit for the upcoming T20 World Cup in October – November and hence had decided to keep him out of the continental championship.

Harshal, on the other hand, suffered a rib injury during India’s tour of West Indies and hence was ruled out of the squad.

The duo has been training since then to be fit in time for the World Cup down under.

Earlier, on Saturday, Shaheen Afridi was also ruled out of the tournament due to a knee ligament injury. The pacer was doubtful for participation in the Netherlands tour as well but still accompanied the squad as captain Babar Azam wanted to confirm whether he was match-fit.

Hasan Ali who was earlier not a part of the squad is rumoured to replace Afridi in the Pakistan squad. India, on the contrary, will have Bhuvneshwar Kumar leading the attack in the absence of Bumrah.

While Asia Cup commences on 27 August, the arch-rivals are set to face each other on 28 August.

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