Pakistan A captain Mohammad Haris has hit back at the critics after leading his team to the ACC Emerging Asia Cup 2023 title after the win over India A. The Pakistan team played dominant cricket in the tournament’s final, blowing away the young Indian side led by Yash Dhull. It was an exciting tournament, where the BCCI picked an all-young squad as none of the players had senior team experience, while the Pakistan team had few players who had already represented the nation at the senior cricket level.
Several fans started belittling Pakistan’s team success claiming India picked a non-experienced squad compared to Pakistan.
Haris slammed the critics and said it was not Pakistan who told India to send young players to the multi-nation tournament.
“People are saying that Pakistan sent A team with many seniors. We did not ask them to send little kids to the tournament. They say that we had international experience in our team. How much international matches have we played but? Saim has played 5, I have played 6. Those guys (India players) have played 260 IPL matches,” Haris said in a podcast.
Tayyab Tahir scored a sensational century for Pakistan A in the final and helped them post a mammoth 352/8 while batting first. Tahir scored 108 runs off 71 balls which was laced with 12 fours and 4 sixes.
India made a fist of it but ended up at 224 all out in 40 overs to suffer their first defeat in this tournament.
Pakistan A, who fielded as many as eight players with international experience, were in mood to give a return gift to India A, who fielded a purely U-23 side with no experience of top-flight cricket.
Earlier, Haris hailed his team for a clinical show in the final of tournament during the post-match presentation.
“Firstly, I would like to congratulate all of Pakistan. This is what happens, when you score big runs in a final, the opposition comes under pressure and then if you get back-to-back wickets it gets tough for them. We had tried different combinations in the last four-five matches, tried different players, and it worked well for us. We had shown the videos of the Indian batters to our bowlers. Sai Sudharsan and Abhishek were their main players and we thought that if we could get them out early, it would help us. I am very happy with how the boys are motivated. We have the Asia Cup also coming up and the World Cup too after that. Sri Lanka is a tough place to play spin. So it was good preparation,” Haris said.
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