Aakash Chopra believes India should have started Mohammed Shami against Afghanistan instead of Shardul Thakur in the World Cup 2023 matchup, and he suggests that India do it in their upcoming match against Pakistan.

India needed an extra seamer for Wednesday's (October 11) game against Afghanistan in Delhi, thus Shardul was inserted into the starting XI in place of Ravichandran Ashwin. In six overs, the seam bowling all-rounder had stats of 1/31.

Chopra argued in a video that was uploaded to his channel on YouTube that Shardul was never going to be necessary with the bat against Afghanistan, and he suggested India play Shami instead of him against Pakistan.

"There is always a discussion about whether Shardul Thakur or Mohammed Shami should be played. The team went towards Shardul. We had discussed as well that I want Shami but the team will play Shardul because they will get batting at No. 8 from him,” Chopra said.

"I was saying the No. 8 won't get to bat. If your No. 8 gets to bat against Afghanistan, then leave it, let it go. Someone else can play those big shots and if they don't, you will lose and then you can say - 'well played'. The batting was not going to come. I feel you should play Shami against Pakistan as well.”

India and Pakistan will square off against one another at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 14. As a result of the lengthier boundary lines at the site, it is quite doubtful that they would include Shami in their starting XI; nevertheless, they could think about bringing back Ashwin.