Ravi Shastri refused to call Shaheen Afridi a world class bowler© Twitter
Pakistan’s bowling attack was put to swords by the Indian batters as the two teams squared off in the Cricket World Cup 2023 match on Saturday. Chasing a paltry target of 192 runs, India rode on Rohit Sharma‘s 86 to reach the target with about 20 overs to spare. While the entire Pakistan team is to be blamed for the loss, India greats Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar single out their marquee pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi who has looked like an ordinary bowler since reaching India for the World Cup.
Shaheen, widely considered one of the finest bowlers in the world, bagged two wickets in the match while conceding 36 runs in 6 overs. While he did manage to dismiss the likes of Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma in the match, he hardly managed to trouble the Indian batters with his bowling overall.
“When Naseem Shah is not playing and this is the quality of spin… Shaheen Shah Afridi is no Wasim Akram. He is a good bowler with the new ball and can pick wickets, but there is nothing special about him. He is only a decent bowler. He’s no big deal. You have to accept the truth,” Shastri said on Star Sports, giving a brutal analysis of Shaheen.
Sunil Gavaskar, who is also working as a commentator and an expert for the broadcaster, highlighted how Pakistan took too long to learn what kind of deliveries were getting India’s Jasprit Bumrah wickets in the match.
“Rizwan is the kind of player who can take the game away from the opposition. He is a very cheeky player. He knows how to play and adjust his game according to the needs of the side. So his wicket was very crucial or else Pakistan would have ended with 250-260. So that was a huge blow. Next over Bumrah gets another wicket, with another cutter.
“Clearly Pakistan did not learn anything because it was only towards the end when Shaheen bowled that cutter that got Rohit out. We would have thought that they would bowl the cutter even with the new ball. It is not written anywhere that the new ball has to be bowled at a certain pace. You can change it, but nothing of those sorts was seen from the Pakistan bowlers,” Gavaskar said.
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