Which ball can get Abhishek Sharma out? Misbah-ul-Haq’s advice to Pakistan team ahead of clash against India

First the praise. “The kind of starts he gives, relaxes the team, takes the pressure off the rest of the batsmen. The best thing about him is that he is good against all type of bowling – pace or spin. Also, off side and on side, he plays everywhere. He can hit boundaries anywhere,” Misbah told PTV Sports.

Misbah then talked about how Pakistan need to think about dismissing him early, and not to try saving runs. He suggested two methods.

First for a pacer. “You have to bowl at stumps at him, get the ball to come in to him a bit from a good length. That’s the only chance to dismiss him,” Misbah said.

He also suggested that if the pitch is tacky or helps the spinners, Pakistan should try an off spinner like Saim Ayub. “Or try an offspinner, if the pitch is like that where the ball is getting stuck. Like Saim Ayub.”

He then compared him to the impact Rohit Sharma used to have as an opener in white-ball games.

“You have to take the chance to get him out, you can’t think let us try giving less runs (yeh over nikaal-wa loon) but with that you wil get trapped. If you take his wicket, you can put pressure on India by taking out their main weapon. Like when you used to remove Rohit Sharma and the impact he used to have. So it’s mighty important for Pakistan to get him out.”

Another former captain Shoaib Malik was asked why India aren’t struggling despite losing two big players in Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

“Just go back even before these two. {They had big players like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, VVS Laxman…. Their system hasn’t changed. Their first-class cricket hasn’t changed,” Malik told PTV Sports.

“They knew that Rohit-Virat had to eventually end their careers and we had to create back-up. They would send their bench strength against smaller teams, to give them exposure. The homework has to be good and that’s why you aren’t seeing any gap. Else, when big names like this go, at least for a little while you would struggle – but India aren’t struggling, they are still the No.1 team.”

That’s when Misbah intervened with a smile to say, “See someone like Yashasvi Jaiswal isn’t playing. Rishabh Pant isn’t playing…”