'One concern': Ex-India star issues big warning ahead of England semi-final

NEW DELHI: Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has raised concerns over Abhishek Sharma’s batting form after the right-hander scored just 10 off 11 balls against the West Indies in India’s latest outing. Although Sharma had earlier struck a half-century against Zimbabwe, Pathan feels he needs to make certain technical corrections.

"One concern is Abhishek Sharma's form again. After scoring that fifty, it felt like he would continue making runs, but when he went for that shot, his back knee was bent too much, and his body weight was falling backwards. Ideally, more weight should have been on the front foot, as that suits him better. He will need to pay attention to that," Pathan said on his YouTube channel.



In the match, India won the toss and chose to bowl. West Indies made a solid start, with Roston Chase (40 off 25 balls) and captain Shai Hope (32 off 33 balls) adding 68 for the opening wicket. However, despite a brisk cameo from Shimron Hetmyer (27 off 12 balls), the visitors slipped to 119/4 in 14.1 overs.

A late surge came through Jason Holder (37* off 22 balls) and Rovman Powell (34* off 19 balls), who stitched together a 76-run partnership in just 35 deliveries to power West Indies to 195/4 in 20 overs. Jasprit Bumrah led India’s bowling effort with figures of 2/36, while Varun Chakaravarthy and Hardik Pandya conceded 40 runs each in their four-over spells.

India’s chase began shakily as they fell to 41/2 inside the powerplay. A 58-run partnership between Sanju Samson and Suryakumar Yadav (18) steadied the innings. Contributions from Samson, Tilak Varma (27 off 15 balls), Hardik Pandya (17) and Shivam Dube (8*) then guided India to a five-wicket win.

Commenting on Suryakumar Yadav, Pathan stressed the importance of converting starts into significant scores. "Suryakumar will need to score runs against bigger teams, and that is something he must keep in mind," he said. Yadav is India’s leading run-scorer in the tournament with 231 runs in seven innings, but he has not registered a major knock since his unbeaten 84 against the USA.

India are now set to take on England in the semi-finals at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday.



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