Former Pakistan captains Inzamam-ul-Haq and Saleem Malik have accused India pacer Arshdeep Singh and the team of altering the conditions of the ball during their T20 World Cup Super 9 match against Australia. Inzamam said that India must have tampered the ball in the middle overs to help Arshdeep in getting reverse swing from the new ball. Inzamam and Malik also slammed the umpires for not staying alert to the situation, with the latter even suggesting that the officials do favour certain teams, adding that India are one of them.
Inzamam pointed out that getting reverse swing with the new ball is difficult, unless the condition is altered.
"When Arshdeep Singh was bowling the 15th over, there was reverse swing. With the new ball, it is too early. This means that the ball was tampered around the 12th or 13th over to get reverse swing. So, the umpires should keep their eyes open," Inzamam said during a discussion on 24 News.
"There is a saying that the umpires keep their eyes closed for some teams, and India are one of them. I remeber getting fined for reporting a similar situation during a game against Pakistan," Malik pointed out.
Inzamam also suggested that the umpires would have taken extremeif there was a Pakistan player in that situation.
"If this was the case with the Pakistan bowlers, there would have been a lot of discussion on the same. If Arshdeep's ball is reversing in the 15th over, it is evident that something was done to the ball," Inzamam added.
Meanwhile, Arshdeep leads the wicket-taking charts for India in the ongoing tournament. With figures of 3 for 37, Arshdeep also climbed to the second spot in the tournament's wicket-takers chart with 15 wickets in six games with Afghanistan's Fazalhaq Farooqi sitting on top with 16 wickets in seven games.
After the match, Arshdeep gave credit to Jasprit Bumrah for his brilliant bowling throughout the tournament.
"I guess a lot of credit goes to Jassi bhai (Jasprit Bumrah) because he puts a lot of pressure on the batters - he gives, what, three or four runs in an over - so batters are coming hard against me, and I just have to try and bowl my best ball and there are a lot of chances of getting wickets there," he said.