Gautam Gambhir: “When it comes to Shaheen Afridi, don’t look to survive. Look to score runs from him”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former India opener Gautam Gambhir said the men in blue can’t look to just survive against Pakistan left-arm seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi.
He noted that given Afridi’s propensity to attack the opposition and take early wickets, the Indian batsmen must actively target him and look to score runs.
Afridi is back in action after spending months on the sidelines with a knee ligament injury.
He looked in deadly form in the 2022 T20 World Cup warm-up matches, which has prompted the warning from Gambhir as India and Pakistan will both kick off their campaigns when they face each other on Sunday in Melbourne.
“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,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Following their clash with the men in blue, Pakistan will face Zimbabwe on Thursday in Perth.
Pakistan’s 2022 T20 World Cup squad: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood
Reserves: Mohammad Haris, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir