India should counter Pakistan left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi in an aggressive method and never simply look to see him off of their T20 World Cup opener, former cricketer Gautam Gambhir stated on Wednesday.
India will tackle the arch-rivals on October 23 in Melbourne. Afridi, who’s coming back from a knee harm that dominated him out of the Asia Cup, is predicted to pose a severe menace to the Indian batters on the Melbourne Cricket Ground within the upcoming T20 showpiece.
“When it comes to Shaheen Afridi, don’t look to survive. Look to score runs from him. Because the moment you look to survive, everything becomes really small. Whether it’s your backlift, whether it’s your footwork, and obviously, in T20 cricket you can’t look to survive,” Gambhir stated whereas talking on Star Sports present ‘Game Plan’.
“I know that he can be dangerous with the new ball, but again, irrespective of that, the Indian batters need to score more runs, get into better positions, and look to time the balls rather than to hit it. “India will be fine because India has got the quality in their top 3 or 4 who can definitely take on Shaheen Shah Afridi,” the previous World T20 winner added. Gambhir’s former India teammate Irfan Pathan stated the Indian batters must play neatly on the iconic MCG.
“When you play at the MCG, the straight boundaries are not that big. It’s the side boundaries that are massive. Obviously, India need to be smart, especially the batting. “Probably, it will be difficult to hit the side boundaries, so they have to play the gaps and probably convert the twos into threes and ones into twos, because running between the wickets will be very important,” he recommended.
Pathan additionally had advise for Indian bowlers towards the likes of Pakistan captain Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.
“Don’t give them any width whatsoever, especially Rizwan, because he’s the guy who takes the Powerplay on his shoulders. Just try to get the pace going. Babar takes his time. So, you need to be aware of those situations and those batters,” he stated. “The line must be on the stumps, with tight traces. And with each batters, the size adjustments barely. When it involves Rizwan, you’ll be able to afford to bowl extra fuller. You can attempt to hit him beneath the knee roll. This is the place your line and size could be.
“And when it comes to Babar Azam, you need to get him out LBW, but your aim should not be on his front leg, it should be behind his leg because he’s slightly open. This is where Arshdeep and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar come in with that in-swinging delivery,” Irfan added.
