India's captain Rohit Sharma. (PTI) Everyone knows what happenned last time Shaheen Afridi turned up against India in the last year’s T20 world cup. In a blink-and-miss moment, he delivered the sucker punch to India in his first over, knocking out Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.
Sachin Tendulkar has a simple advice to offer to the Indian openers. Don’t play across the line, is his message.
“Last time in Dubai Shaheen got wickets in the first over itself. He is an attacking bowler and likes to pitch it up; he will look to swing the ball, keep it in the stumps, full-up, hoping that the batters go across the line. We need to be mindful of that. I am sure the batters have thought about it. They will look to keep it straight upfront, and then slowly, once they get a decent start, capitalise on that,” Tendulkar told Hindustan Times.
“There’s not much one needs to change. I would say not to go too across the line,” Tendulkar said.
Shaheen Afridi has spoken about how he had wanted to attack Rohit Sharma’s weakness against inswing at yorker length.
“I had observed that Rohit Sharma struggles against in-swing at that yorker length. In 2021, most of my dismissals were with that length,” Shaheen told Cricinfo. “So, I thought if that’s my strength why not use it against him the first ball I bowl to him.” In the same over, he had knocked down Rahul’s stumps too with an inswinger from a length.