Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has questioned India's ability to reverse swing the ball in the 15th over during their T20 World Cup victory against Australia in St Lucia.
India won a tense game against Australia, their last of the Super Eights stage, to qualify for the semi-finals on June 24. Batting first, India set up a big total of 205, before restricting Australia to 181-7 in their 20 overs.
At one stage, Australia needed 81 runs in eight overs and with eight wickets in hand before they lost the plot, courtesy of some tight bowling by Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel. Arshdeep Singh bowled a crucial second spell as well, taking two wickets and giving 21 runs in the 16th and 18th overs combined.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, however, wasn't pleased with what he saw of Arshdeep. The former Pakistan skipper accused him and the Indian team of working on the ball, which helped the left-arm seamer generate reverse swing in his second spell against Australia.
On a Pakistani news channel 24 News HD, Inzamam said: "When Arshdeep was bowling the 15th over, it was reverse swinging. Is that too early with the new ball? This means the ball was ready by the 12th-13th over, it was capable of reversing. It was reverse-swinging in the 15th. Umpires need to keep their eyes open.
"If Pakistan bowlers did this, there would have been hue and cry. We know how to reverse it really well. If Arshdeep can reverse it in the 15th, there's been some serious work done on the ball.
"If Bumrah does it [you can understand], his action is like that. When others with a specific action or speed do it, it means the ball has been prepared in a special way.
He did go on to say that the conditions might have helped the ball reach that state, with ex-cricketer Salim Malik also suggesting that the pitch might have helped India's cause.
"Maybe they got hit for a lot. Maybe the wicket was hard and rough, but we need to check it," Inzamam said.
Malik added: "Maybe there were some hard surfaces or stones where the ball might have struck..."
This is not the first time a former Pakistan cricketer has accused India of working on the the ball in a recent World Cup. Last year, during the 2023 ODI World Cup, Hasan Raza alleged that India were being given different balls compared to the other teams, helping them generate more movement and make bowling easier.
India are not the only team that have been accused of "tampering" at the ongoing 2024 T20 World Cup. During the Pakistan vs USA game earlier in the tournament, former South African fast bowler Rusty Theron had accused Haris Rauf of scratching the ball.
@ICC are we just going to pretend Pakistan aren't scratching the hell out of this freshly changed ball? Reversing the ball that's just been changed 2 overs ago? You can literally see Harris Rauf running his thumb nail over the ball at the top of his mark. @usacricket #PakvsUSA
— Rusty Theron (@RustyTheron) June 6, 2024
Incidentally, the later half of USA's innings saw a substantial amount of reverse swing being generated by the Pakistan seamers.
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