Mike Hesson press conference: ‘Ishan took the game away from us’ after India beat Pakistan
It was his second successive duck in the tournament and third in the last five T20 innings. Despite being the world’s highest ranked T20I batsman, he is yet to score in this World Cup.Shastri believes that such rough patches are normal for any player and that Abhishek will regain his form once he spends some time at the crease. In an interview with sports presenter Sanjana Ganesan, he said: “I think he is due but he just needs to take some time. Things like that happen and you can get on the boil but he needs to give himself a little more time to get back on track. Because it’s not difficult for him to convert those dot balls into boundaries and sixes later on.”Shastri also praised Ishan Kishan, who played a match-winning knock of 77 off 40 balls against Pakistan and was named man of the match. Kishan was in red-hot form and scored back-to-back half-centuries in the tournament. Shastri said: “He’s batting like a dream at the moment. To hit on that track (at the Colombo pitch) close to 200 is unreal. It was not easy for any batsman, Indian or Pakistani, because the ball was stopping and he hit the way he did and I liked how quickly he assessed the conditions.”In the match, Pakistan decided to bat first and after early wickets, India recovered to score 175/7 thanks to strong finishing by Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube and Rinku Singh. Pakistan collapsed during the chase and were bowled out for 114, giving India a dominant 61-run win.India have now won all three matches so far in Group A and are on top, while Pakistan are third. The win also gives India an 8-1 lead over Pakistan in T20 World Cup matches.