By: Express News ServiceSeptember 30, 2025 01:50 PM IST 5 min readIndia's Kuldeep Yadav, left, celebrates the wicket of Bangladesh's Parvez Hossain Emon with India's captain Suryakumar Yadav during the Asia Cup cricket match between India and Bangladesh at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. (AP Photo)There was much to rue in how a fluffed run out chance eventually allowed Tilak Varma to take India home to victory by 5 wickets in the Asia Cup final. But experts from the defeated side acknowledged that the game really turned when Pakistan batted – and collapsed.Shoaib Malik and Misbah ul Haq, two former T20 World Cup and CT winners, reckoned it was Suryakumar Yadav’s handling of Kuldeep Yadav that pointed to canny tactics. “Actual turning point was Surya stopping Kuldeep after two overs. His expression was whether he had taken right call or not,” Misbah pointed out. “He had given 29 in first three overs. Last over he gave only 6. Surya used tactics. He knew the ball is new, Sahibzada had hit him for 6 on back foot, Fakhar on front foot off semi new ball. Surya decided to bring him back when ball got a bit older when conditions would get difficult.”Attacking Kuldeep in this second spell when he inflicted damage with three wickets brought down Pakistan. “First two overs you had won battle against him by hitting sixes. But next two overs you were not gonna win battle by hitting 6. You were in a position that even if you scored just 12 off his next two overs and didn’t lose wickets, you would have reached 170. But Pakistan’s game awareness is zero,” Malik said on Game On Hai of PTV SportsShoaib Akhtar had called the establishment lallu, but on PTV he also went through three stages of muddled grief after the loss, swaying between criticism and acceptance.“Pakistan reached final after playing decent cricket. It’s not a stroke of luck. You know how to reach final, it’s a good team. In their defense, since 1990s, they have made every semi or final. It’s debatable and you can’t be angry that our middle order let us down. Many said we needed Hasan Nawaz today. And a fast bowler was needed today. Pakistan has made serious progress in making finals, but not winning final is. Capitalisation we could not do. You can’t blame the middle order. It is the blame of the management who is not thinking right. Senseless coaching. Sorry for harsh words. We had match winners sitting at home,” he said.He was dismayed with the whole approach. “There’s a problem in our middle order, the first three of them always. Shaheen batted higher. Questionable. Again you expected lower order to take you to 175. Too many errors. Captaincy questionable. Bowling changes. When they were struggling against spinners, what’s the need to bring Haris Rauf. It’s ok. It’s fine. I hope next couple of months they don’t repeat mistakes,” he said.Misbah was critical of the batting collapse. “Lost 9 wickets for 33 runs. Even first wicket got out unnecessarily. We needed to plan every phase. Even 60 in 6 overs didn’t drop from a tree. You have to get set, play a few singles. Right from first ball they went after bowlers. One ball Haris came and hit and then Out. Everyone did same. Kuldeep in 3 overs was on 29 runs, 1 wicket. Fourth over we gave him 3 wickets. There was no communication on Plan B. To assess situation, take score to 160. We repeatedly changed middle orders. We again had the game in first 6 overs when they batted. But made mistakes in crucial moments. Run out and catch. I have not understood how we missed that run out where batsman was at least 2 feet away and ball was in frame but we missed. Haris delayed or didn’t realise batsman wouldn’t reach. But under pressure we erred. Match was there. You got Tilak Varma, match khatm. You slipped,” he ranted.Story continues below this adALSO READ | ‘Trophy leke bhaag gaye woh’: Suryakumar Yadav on the bizarre Asia Cup award presentationMisbah stressed that it was about snapping wickets: “Bowling options. They struggled to score more than 6 runs off spinners. Ball was in your hand. Wikton ko udaa do! With both hands. Why were you looking at settling batsmen and then trying to get them out. Nawaz is our main bowler. His spin was unreadable. But you removed him after one over. Most attacking option. Leftie. If we got Tilak out, game khatm thi,” he said.Malik wasn’t very impressed with the openers either despite a good start. “Just because openers scored runs it doesn’t mean they played well against Shivam Dube. In powerplay… Fakhar just swung bat to medium pacer. Bowler kept pitching outside off stump. Use some brains. Use sense. Shivam only used intelligence. And a batter’s mind. He wasn’t predictable,” he said.Sandeep Dwivedi: By treating cricket as war, India and Pakistan do the game a disserviceStory continues below this adBazid Khan speaking on the same show, didn’t buy into ‘Tilak gone, game khatm’ theory. “We lost in batting. Should have reached 170. Even if Tilak had been run out, they had two more batters. You lost match at 27 runs 6 wickets. You couldn’t even bat out all overs,” he scoffed.He reckoned Pakistan even forfeited their earlier advantages choking under pressure. “Our catching efficiency used to be better than India. Today under pressure. You won’t get opportunity in final three times. Middle order they don’t know how to bat in such situations,” he reiterated.Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd