Five times when Pakistan Cricket ‘cut, copy & paste’ Indian Cricket in 2022 (Pun Intended)

Despite being arch-rivals, Pakistan and Indian spark more excitement than any other two cricket teams in the world. The year 2022 was special for all those who love to cheerish Ind vs. Pak clash at the international stage as the two quality sides faced each other, not just one, two but three times.

While Team India enjoyed the success on two occasions, Pakistan’s sole victory dealt a huge blow to Men in Blue’s Asia Cup campaign. While India’s dominance in the bilateral contest remained intact in 2022, Pakistan made a couple of memorable comebacks in the major tournaments like Asia Cup and T20 World Cup 2022.

However, there were few uncanny similarities between both the teams or it would be safe to say Pakistan cricket ‘cut, copy and paste’ Indian cricket on several occasions in the year 2022. As we all welcome the year 2023, The Quotes look back at five moments when Pakistan cricket indirectly ‘cut, copy & paste’ Indian cricket in 2022.

Former Captains had to leave board’s chair:

[Sourav Ganguly had to quit BCCI presidency/ PCB sacked Ramiz Raja /]

Despite intentions to continue as BCCI president, Sourav Ganguly’s tenure came to end in the year 2022. Reports even suggested that Ganguly wanted to throw his hat for the ICC chair but didn’t get required approval from other members of the board.

Meanwhile, Ramiz Raja has been recently sacked as PCB president followed by a series of blame games between Raja and PCB.

Failure of openers in major tournaments:

[KL Rahul & Rohit Sharma for India / Babar & Rizwan for Pakistan]

While Babar Azam and Md. Rizwan had a memorable year in bilateral contests, both the prolific batter faltered in major tournaments like Asia Cup and T20 World Cup 2022. Similarly, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul struggled in both the majors, excluding a few rare knocks. On & off Pakistan openers (Babar Azam & Rziwan) ‘cut & copy and paste’ the performance of Rohit and KL Rahul, at the top-order.  

Injury to premium pacer:

[Jasprit Bumrah’s back injury / Shaheen Afridi’ knee injury]

It’s okay if you guys copy our good deeds, but give yourself a break guys. You even went on to cut, copy and paste our injuries. While Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of the Asia Cup 2022, Shaheen Afridi too missed the continental tournament due to knee injury. However, Pak pacer travelled with the team to UAE.

Bumrah’s injury kept him away from most of the on-field action in 2022, Afridi returned with a bang in T20 World Cup 2022, only to expose his injury in the final clash against England. Afridi could only bowl two overs in that match.

Emergence of All-Rounders:

[Hardik Pandya for India/Shadab Khan for Pakistan]

This is one of the aspects where we are proud of you guys, or safe to say Shadab. It’s always good to learn good things. If Hardik Pandya found his mojo in the year 2022, Shadab Khan brought much life to the Pak squad. Both the cricketers were instrumental for their respective teams and won several games with a lot of ease.

Shadab’s best came to the fore in the high-stake T20 World Cup 2022, where the middle-order batter made immense contribution with bat and ball, and took the team to the summit-clash.

Plan to build two parallel teams:

Indian cricket enjoys the courtesy of having strong bench strength and due to which we have the ability to play two (even three if required) simultaneously. When Rohit Sharma-led side was taking on England in England in a multi-format series, Shikhar Dhawan-led side was trusted to tour Sri Lanka for a T20Is.

Pakistan’s newly appointed interim chair of the selection committee Shahid Afridi has now revealed his aspirations to build two parallel teams. “My main aim will be to strengthen the bench so that we can have two teams ready to play at the highest level,” Afridi said.