Matthew Hayden: “He has got the variations with the ball”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Matthew Hayden, the big-hitting Australia powerhouse, pointed out that Pakistan spinner Shadab Khan can bamboozle many batsmen since he has a range of variations in his arsenal.
Shadab is known to be a wicket-taker and is Pakistan’s go-to spin bowler in ODIs and T20Is.
His tricky bowling not only troubles batsmen, but can bring the opposition’s scoring rate down, which ends up benefitting Pakistan.
“He has got the variations with the ball,” Hayden told Star Sports as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
Shadab was not included in Pakistan’s Test squad for their two-match series against Sri Lanka, but he was picked for the three-match ODI series against Afghanistan and claimed four wickets at an average of 23.75.
Recently, he featured in the Asia Cup and claimed six wickets in five games at an average of 40.83.
Pakistan got off to a strong start in the tournament as they crushed Nepal by 238 runs before sharing one point apiece with India as their match was rained off.
Despite this, the men in green made it through to the Super Fours and went on to thump Bangladesh by seven wickets.
However, their unbeaten streak was ended in their next encounter with India as the men in blue demolished them by 228 runs.
Pakistan looked to get things back on track and make it to the final when they went up against Sri Lanka, but they couldn’t do it as they lost by two wickets via the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) method.
Currently, Shadab and the men in green are playing in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India.
Pakistan began their campaign with a comfortable 81-run win over the Netherlands, with Shadab taking one wicket in the eight overs he bowled.
Next up for the team will be a clash against Sri Lanka on October 10 in Hyderabad.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Hasan Ali