Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Amir. The two left-arm fast bowlers from different generations will be remembered as architects of Pakistan’s famous victories against India in ICC tournaments.

Shaheen provided the early burst for Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday to end their World Cup drought against India after 12 losses while Amir had ran through India’s top-order almost single-handedly to seal Pakistan’s Champions Trophy triumph at The Oval in 2017.

Express pace and movement can often prove lethal and Shaheen showed that on a placid wicket. If the 21-year-old’s three for 31 restricted India to 151 for seven in the T20 World Cup, openers Mohammad Rizwan (79 not out off 55 balls) and captain Babar Azam (68 not out off 52 balls) batted sensibly to complete a clinical chase with 13 balls remaining.

The dew did play its part but nothing worked to plan for Virat Kohli’s men on the day. While their batting struggled against not just Shaheen but Shadab Khan and Haris Rauf as well, the Indian bowlers were carted around mercilessly in the second session.

Once again the composition of the XI did play a role in India’s defeat. Sunil Gavaskar has all along blamed wrong team selections for India’s failure to win any ICC event after the 2013 Champions Trophy.

When it was a toss-up between Ravichandran Ashwin and Varun Chakravarthy, the team management decided to give the mystery spinner his maiden World Cup opportunity. The youngster went for 33 runs in his four overs. The Indians would certainly have helped themselves with some experience in the middle overs when the Pakistan openers were in a murderous mood.

Franchise cricket can never be the yardstick for international matches and the Indians seemed to have realised it the hard way. What also seemed weird was the decision to include Bhuvneshwar Kumar and keep Shardul Thakur out.

Bhuvneshwar hasn’t been at his best in the IPL (economy of 7.97 in 11 matches for Sunrisers Hyderabad) and has struggled with his fitness and form. Even in the warm-up games he proved to be a tad expensive. With Hardik Pandya not bowling, the Indians were always going to be a bowler short on such off days.

Given the dew factor, it was no surprise when Azam decided to field on winning the toss. Shaheen with his pace and swing took the zing out of the Indian openers in his first two overs. The flick of the wrists initiated that late movement which saw the departure of both Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.

Shaheen, who is from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Peshawar division, may not be as devastating as Amir but he bowled fast and straight while swinging the ball into the batsmen. Rohit was plumb in front off the fourth delivery of the match and Rahul followed eight deliveries later, bowled through the gate.

The left-arm fast bowler, who is engaged to the daughter of former captain Shahid Afridi, came back to bowl the 19th over and removed Kohli with a short delivery.

Suryakumar Yadav tried to buck the trend with a six over mid wicket but his joy was short-lived. The Powerplay overs belonged to Pakistan as India crawled to 36 for three.

The only solution for India in the circumstances was to break the right-hand batting combination to disturb the bowlers’ line and length.

The arrival of Rishabh Pant did help though the presence of Kohli at the crease worked in India’s favour. Even as wickets tumbled, he appeared calm and determined to bat through the innings.

None except for Pant (39), who hoicked Hasan Ali for consecutive sixes in the 12th over, managed to provide the fireworks in the middle overs. India should consider themselves lucky to have accumulated 37 off the last three overs after Rauf’s 17th over yielded only four runs.

Kohli shed the bang-bang approach and moved to eight off the first 13 balls faced. It included a swat over mid on for a six after he stepped out to Shaheen. It was an uncharacteristic 57 off 49 balls and included only five boundaries. It was more an exhibition of controlling the innings and staying till the end to pile the pressure on the opposition.

In what appeared to be the same pitch on which West Indies tumbled on Saturday, India too found themselves in a similar situation after the Powerplay overs. But the Indians took a pragmatic approach by rotating the strike and not taking undue risks.

Even the presence of Pandya, considered by Kohli as one of the best finishers in this format, did little to prop up India’s total in the closing stages.