rewrite this title How Kuldeep and Axar slammed the door shut on Pakistan in middle overs

Years later, when round one of India vs Pakistan at Asia Cup 2025 is discussed, it’s likely the no-handshake gesture and the simmering tension will be remembered first. But peel through the layers, and you will uncover India’s spin masterclass that left Pakistan’s young batting line-up searching for answers.

At one point, 15 overs into their innings, it seemed as if Pakistan were simply picking through the wreckage. The moment that captured it all came in the 13th when Suryakumar Yadav placed a short midwicket, a silly mid-on, a short cover, a slip and a leg slip as Faheem Ashraf faced a hat-trick ball from Kuldeep Yadav.

In the end, Pakistan left with barely a little more than just a few consolatory blows from Shaheen Afridi, as they now walk into a potential must-win against UAE to ensure there will be round two against India next Sunday, a contest that will need them to soul search.

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Pakistan only need to analyse the match scorecard and India’s robust approach as compared to their diffidence, especially after the powerplay. They didn’t challenge India’s spinners enough for them to think out of the box. From 42 for 2 at the end of the powerplay, they went into their shell, only to eventually collapse.

“With the bat we were a bit frenzied at the start,” Pakistan coach Mike Hesson observed. “The ball held on the surface, as we expected. But we didn’t respond as well as we would’ve liked. We got to the end of the powerplay and we were in the game, and we got squeezed.

“That built up a lot of pressure during the middle overs. The more big games you play, the more trust you have in your own game. We’ve certainly got players who are finding their feet, but they certainly want to be in the battle, and we’ll come back stronger in a few days.”

Between overs 5.3 to 11, Pakistan didn’t hit a single boundary while losing two wickets. ESPNcricinfo pegged their aggressive responses to just eight deliveries (24.24%) in this period. And it didn’t help that India were buzzing through their overs with spin before the dew got heavier, as evidenced by the ground staff trying to mop up the outer pockets at the halfway mark.

This was the phase where Axar Patel broke Pakistan’s back. He struck first by beating Fakhar Zaman in flight, tempting him into a big shot that he dragged to Tilak Varma at long-on. Two overs later, he landed the knockout blow of Salman Agha.

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Stuck on 3 off 11 and increasingly desperate to break free, Agha tried to slog sweep his way out of trouble but top-edged tamely to deep square leg. Those two strikes in quick succession drained the innings of any momentum and left Pakistan tottering at 49 for 4 at the halfway mark.

The slowdown, Hesson reflected, was down to their inability to rotate the strike and not because of their inability to read India’s spinners, especially Axar. “I don’t think there was any issue in picking spinners, it’s what you do with it when you pick it,” he said. “Axar’s – there’s no mystery there.

“He slides the ball, occasionally turns one. It’s more the accuracy and pressure that they build up, when you build up a lot of dots, sometimes your mind plays tricks and you play big shots. It’s certainly not that they can’t pick it, the fact is we struggled to rotate strike to take pressure off ourselves.”

Suryakumar observed there was more to Axar’s success than just picking wickets. He pointed to a focused-training method that has made a difference.

“His plans are very clear. Whenever I see him at practice, he bowls a lot to left-handers because that’s a proper match-up,” he said. “You feel if a left-hander is walking in, you can’t bowl a left-arm spinner, but he practices more to the left-hand batters. And when he bowls to the right-handers, he has his own plans. I’m really happy with his clear plans.”

Axar’s damage happened to be the prelude to Kuldeep’s a few overs later. In the 13th over, Kuldeep struck off consecutive deliveries, one off a loopy legbreak that bounced extra, and another off a wrong’un to left-hand batter Mohammad Nawaz.

Kuldeep’s double-strike underlined how well India had managed their resources through the innings. Having burned through three of Bumrah’s overs inside the powerplay, a tactic Suryakumar has now employed in back-to-back games, India effectively left their spinners with a cushion and attacking fields to work with in the middle overs.

And they couldn’t have done it better, with Kuldeep and Axar slamming the door shut.