World Cup winning batter Gautam Gambhir feels that the Indian team shouldn’t only look to survive against Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi, but they should also need to see a way to score runs against him.
Afridi was the star performer for Pakistan when defeated India by 10 wickets in their 2021 T20 World Cup tournament opener in Dubai, picking 3/31 in his four overs and taking out the top three of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli.
Now with his availability being confirmed for the Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia after completing his recovery from a right knee injury, India will undoubtedly face a huge challenge from Afridi when the two teams open their Super 12 campaign in a high-octane clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on October 23.
“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.”
“I know that he can be dangerous with the new ball, but again, irrespective, the Indian batters need to score more runs, get into better positions, and look to time the balls rather than to hit it. India will be fine because India has got the quality in their top 3 or 4 who can definitely take on Shaheen Shah Afridi,” said Gambhir on ‘Game Plan’ show on Star Sports.
Further talking about how India’s batting should go about at Melbourne, former India left-arm pacer Irfan Pathan explained, “Look, one thing is clear. When you play at the MCG, the straight boundaries are not that big. It’s the side boundaries that are massive. Obviously, India needs to be smart, especially the batting.”
“Probably, it will be difficult to hit the side boundaries, so they have to play the gaps and probably convert the twos into threes and ones into twos, because running between the wickets will be very important.”
India will face Pakistan in their first match of the T20 World Cup on October 23.
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