Former pacer Aaqib Javed believes that Pakistani pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi’s spell has severely affected the Indian team which has made the Men in Blue change their opening combination in the ongoing T20 Cricket World Cup match against New Zealand.
Left-arm fast-bowler Shaheen set up Pakistan’s victory with figures of 3/31 in the crucial match of the T20 World Cup after which the Green-shirts downed the Men in Blue with a dominating 10 wicket win in their opener.
In his opening burst, Shaheen fired in a searing yorker-length delivery to dismiss Rohit Sharma lbw for a golden duck and rifled one through KL Rahul’s gate to rearrange the stumps.
The lanky pacer also claimed the wicket of Virat Kohli towards the backend of the innings. Speaking after India’s second consecutive defeat in the tournament, which came at the hands of New Zealand on Sunday, Javed said Shaheen’s spell made India change their opening pair.
“Rohit Sharma is one of the best players in T20 cricket but after one blow of Shaheen Shah Afridi, you changed your openers. You brought in Ishan Kishan as he is a leftie because they were afraid of putting two righties against Trent Boult, so Rohit was made to bat at number three.
“It was only two overs opening spell and being the one of the best in the world, Rohit should have gone out as an opener rather than hiding,” Javed said on PTV Sports as quoted by cricketpakistan.com.pk. “It’s all about confidence. If your number one player is not confident and ready to take the charge, its sends the same message to entire team,” he said.—APP
