India vs Pakistan: Jasprit Bumrah achieves unwanted Powerplay record in Asia Cup fixture

Heading into the second India-Pakistan match of the ongoing Asia Cup tournament, plans from the Pakistan camp was clear - bat with intent. Even if it meant taking on India's spearhead Jasprit Bumrah. You could argue that the plan was similar in the league game too, but Pakistan's batters were guilty of taking wrong options far too frequently in that game, even against Bumrah. If anything, they have been better at that in this fixture, if the first six overs of Pakistan's innings are anything to go by.

India's poor catching hasn't helped for sure - two catches have been put down by Abhishek Sharma and Kuldeep Yadav respectively - but Pakistan have also done their bit by being proactive with the bat. Fakhar Zaman started the assault by taking on Bumrah, and struck the ball cleanly in his brief knock. The left-hander faced just nine deliveries but struck 15 off them and Sahibzada Farhan also combined well to take on Bumrah to put the pacer under pressure. Suryakumar Yadav's usage of his premier bowler also seemed bizarre. Seldom has Bumrah bowled more than two overs in the Powerplay and ideally, teams prefer to use him for just one over in the first six overs.

However, with India having just Hardik Pandya as the other seam option, Bumrah has to bowl two in the powerplay but on this occasion, he ended up bowling three overs, conceding 34 runs in the process. According to the host broadcaster Sony Sports, this is Bumrah's most expensive PowerPlay spell in T20I history - a big box ticked by Pakistan as they try to post a strong total on the board. You could argue that if the catches were taken, Bumrah may well have had a lot more impact with the new ball but that's not how cricket works. Pakistan's methods have been adventurous and full of risk but as far as early exchanges go, they have come out on top in Dubai.