India Coach Praises Abhishek-Shubman After Pakistan Provocation: ‘Fought Fire With Their Bats…’ | Cricket News

India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate expressed immense pride in the young team, which managed to stay composed despite provocative and disrespectful behaviour from Pakistan players during the Asia Cup Super 4s game last Sunday.

India secured a comfortable victory over Pakistan by six wickets, thanks to Abhishek Sharma’s impressive 39-ball 74. However, the match was tainted by inappropriate gun-shooting celebrations from opener Sahibzada Farhan.

Furthermore, pacer Haris Rauf made controversial plane-crashing gestures, allegedly referencing Pakistan’s narrative of downing Indian fighter jets during ‘Operation Sindoor’.

‘Easy To Lose Our Minds’

When Ten Doeschate was asked about these intense moments, he praised the maturity displayed by Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, and Tilak Varma in managing to close out the game without being influenced by their opponents’ antics.

“Look, they had a very good start. I don’t think they got carried away with it,” Ten Doeschate remarked about Farhan’s celebrations.

“I will say given the situation you can see why guys are behaving and what they’re trying to portray but we were very focused on how we wanted to behave. I think we stuck to the cricket really well,” said the former Dutch international on Tuesday ahead of the Bangladesh game.

“It would have been easy to lose our minds at that point given the celebration as well and some of the words during the game from the Pakistan bowling unit. I thought the guys stuck really well to the task of getting the job done and winning the game.”

‘Difficult To Control Their Behaviour’

Ten Doeschate also explained why Rauf might have made those controversial gestures.

“Let me first say, the amount of pressure that’s been heaped on the players because of the situation, it’s very difficult to control their behaviour.

“I did see some of the things Haris did and that’s not our concern. Like I said earlier, we’re really proud of how our guys carried themselves,” he said.

Ten Doeschate indirectly suggested that these actions could be a result of India’s ‘No Handshake Policy’ with the Pakistan team following the Pahalgam attacks.

“They fought fire with their bats on the field. I’m sure other teams have issues with some of the things we’ve done but from our side, we’re delighted with how our guys have carried themselves in this tournament,” he added.

(With inputs from PTI)