Aakash Chopra: “Shaheen forces batsmen to play his deliveries with a squared stance, which opens up the opportunity for him to swing the ball back into the right-arm batters”
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Former India batsman Aakash Chopra said Pakistan left-arm seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi is such a threat because he “forces batsmen to play his deliveries with a squared stance”.
Afridi has been in superb form in the ongoing T20 World Cup, and kickstarted his campaign with a match-winning performance that earned him the Man of the Match award.
Afridi dismissed Rohit Sharma, Lokesh Rahul and India captain Virat Kohli as he finished with figures of 3-31 off four overs in Pakistan’s 10-wicket win over their arch-rivals.
The win was Pakistan’s first against India in a World Cup match.
He followed up his impressive performance against India with figures of 1-21 in the five-wicket win over New Zealand.
After that, he took figures of 1-22 off four overs against Afghanistan, who Pakistan also beat by five wickets.
As for the game against Namibia, he finished with figures of 0-36 off his four overs.
“Shaheen forces batsmen to play his deliveries with a squared stance, which opens up the opportunity for him to swing the ball back into the right-arm batters,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
The men in green have booked their spot in the semi-finals and their next game will be against Scotland on Sunday.
Pakistan T20 World Cup Squad: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan (vc), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shoaib Malik
Pakistan T20 World Cup Reserves: Khushdil Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir