'Umpires should keep their eyes open' - Inzamam-ul-Haq accuses Indian team of ball-tampering versus Australia

Inzamam-ul-Haq has come out with allegations of ball-tampering against the Indian team during their last match against Australia, which they won by 24 runs in Gros Islet, St Lucia, to reach the semifinals of the 2024 T20 World Cup.

The former Pakistan captain said that the ball started reverse-swinging for Arshdeep Singh, who starred with figures of 3/37, as early as in the 15th over. The left-arm seamer accounted for the wicket of David Warner with the new ball before bagging the wickets of Matthew Wade and Tim David in the 18th over. Inzamam urged the match officials to keep their eyes open when India are bowling.

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"You can't ignore the fact that when Arshdeep Singh was bowling the 15th over, the ball was reverse-swinging. Isn't it too early for the new ball to start reversing? The ball was ready to reverse by the 12th-13th over. Umpires should keep their eyes open. We a know a bit about reverse swing, so if Arshdeep Singh is able to reverse swing the ball, some serious work was done on the ball," Inzamam said on the 'World Cup Hungama' Show on Pakistan's 24 News channel.

Inzamam opined that for Jasprit Bumrah to get reverse-swing was understandable because of his unothodox action. The cricketer-turned-expert tried to lighten things up by saying that the hard hits from Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh, who threatened to take the game away from India at one stage, could have disrupted the condition of the ball. However, the damage had already been done.

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"The thing with reverse swing is that if Bumrah does it – his action is such – I can understand. The ball needs to be set up in a way that it reverses. I can understand that maybe the ball was hit a lot, the pitch was such. The ball could have been impacted after being hit around the stands. But whatever that was happening, could have been carefully monitored," Inzamam pointed out.