Written by Sandip GDubai | Updated: September 22, 2025 12:51 AM IST 7 min readIndia's Shubman Gill, left, and his batting partner Abhishek Sharma talks during the Asia Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)Tilak Varma’s eyes searched the giant television screen on the ground. He wanted to watch the winning stroke again, a wristy shove through the deep square-leg fence. Hardik Pandya broke the reverie with a tight pat on his shoulder, before they walked back, waving their hands at the crowd and the dressing room. Hardik tapped his helmet to the tune of the chartbusters booming inside the stadium. Around them, Pakistan’s players lay scattered, their jerseys soaked in sweat, exhausted and knackered, unable to think where they lost the game. They did not have time for the pangs of the defeat to sink, before the physio made them sprint under the sweltering humidity.When they pick up the pieces of their defeat, they would realise they were ruthlessly blown away by a supremely superior side, not far from acquiring invincibility. The smooth, rolling machine cannot be defeated with mere passion and spirit. On Sunday, they ran into Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma, who laid the foundations with a thrill-a-ball 105-run stand. For the first three games, Gill let his old pal Abhishek steal the limelight. Gill was content watching him cut the opponent bowlers to ribbons. Returning to T20Is after a year, he was not so much out of touch as he was out of runs. He perished playing attacking against UAE and Pakistan in the first round; against Oman, a ripping in-swinger consumed him. Gill is too self-aware to be perturbed by the lack of runs, but on Sunday, he decided it was time to unbox his full range of strokes, to illustrate that he could conquer this format too. Umpires mediate between India’s players Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill and Pakistani players Pakistan’s Haris Rauf, Pakistan’s Mohammad Nawaz during the Asia Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)The stands were heaving and swaying to the heavy riffs of Abhishek, but Gill wanted to strike more peaceful notes. Leave the crowd hypnotised rather than headbanging. The first four was a sweep, when off-spinner Saim Ayub erred on the leg-side. When he overcompensated by bowling short, Gill duly cut him past point. These were routine boundaries off routinely loose balls. The breathtaking stuff was to come. Shaheen Shah Afridi, tired of the misfiring yorkers, attempted a full-length slower ball. Gill, with a seamless shift of weight into the stroke, lofted the ball over covers. And struck the pose until the ball clipped the boundary hoarding. Abhishek enjoyed the stroke too and kept nodding his head, as though in approval. The last ball of the over, Gill skipped out of the crease and pummelled Afridi over cover. With a stone-cold face, he pointed his bat in the direction of the four. By then, India had an unstoppable momentum. At times, it seemed like special-effects, computer-game cricket. Suryakumar Yadav called it “ice and fire.”The initial energy of Pakistan wavered. More controlled fury kicked in as Gill short-arm pulled Haris Rauf. The strapping Pakistan bowler had just exchanged words with Abhishek. Gill avenged the insult of his friend with the most audacious stroke of the night, one that he had chiselled to perfection in the ICC Academy nets.The pair, undetachable from the U-14 days in Punjab, religiously hit the nets every evening, whether it was optional training or if there was no training at all. Batting in adjacent nets, they would smear the ball into the distance. A support staff would quip: “Competition mein in dono mein, kaun kitne ball baahar bhekega…” They have lost count of the balls they hit outside the ground. Together, they powered India to 69 in the powerplay.Post powerplay, Abhishek took leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed’s introduction as an invitation to rattle out a few sixes. He smashed him for a pair of maximums, the wondrously fluid batswing, the soul of his batting. He completed his half-century in 23 balls, and shortly India strolled to 101 in nine overs. A brief stutter ensued. India lost Gill and Suryakumar Yadav in four balls. Abhishek, too, departed soon after for a bludgeoning 74 off 39 balls, but the foundation was too strong for the mansion to crumble. Tilak and Hardik applied the finishing touches.Abhishek would grab the arclights once again, but Shivam Dube’s understated heroics with the ball should not go unsung. His wicket of Sahibzada Farhan only shackled Pakistan from running away with the game. Dube is the sort of medium pacer considered redundant in this format. He is not express quick, he doesn’t possess a bagful of variations. He lulls batsmen into presuming that he is a walking buffet of boundaries. But on a lethargic surface, his lack of lightning pace, allied by discipline, is a virtue. He makes it more complex for batsmen by shuffling his pace. He keeps a pace median of 130kmph, but the quickest can nudge 135kmph and the slowest could clock 110kph. Saim Ayub did not expect Dube’s hard-length ball to come as quickly as it did and top-edged the pull. This is then an illusion that medium pacers conjure, that their hard-length balls are pullable.Story continues below this ad India’s Shivam Dube bowls a delivery during the Asia Cup cricket match between India and Oman at Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)Farhan’s wicket owed to an off-cutter that gripped off the surface. He tried to impart too much power and mis-hit to Surya at mid-off. From 93 for 1 in 10.2 overs, Pakistan slumped to 115 for 4 in 14.1 overs. The strappingly-built Dube had not only added a few yards of pace, but had figured the perfect line for him. In the past, he tended to bowl into the body. But under Morne Morkel’s guidance, he has blossomed. “He told me to bowl a line that is slightly outside the off-stump. He also worked with me in developing a slower delivery and tweaked my run-up a bit,” he recently revealed the influence of the South African.Not to discount the thrift of Varun Chakaravarthy either. Pakistan batsmen’s default ploy against every spinner was to charge out and hit them down the track. They found success too, but Varun’s shrewd change of pace, subtle tweaks in length, and the precocious variations made him difficult to predict. He was the most economical spinner, bleeding only 6.25 runs an over, when all others conceded more than 7.5 an over. In the end, it was a triumph of collectivism, sprinkled with individual dazzle, one that reasserted India’s domination in T20Is, where it would take a phenomenal effort to stop them.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