The clash between Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi and the Indian top order was one of the most anticipated battles in the World Cup 2023 blockbuster game at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The faceoff carried the weight of expectations, with Shaheen Afridi being a known nightmare for the Indian top order. However, as the game unfolded, it became evident that the fast bowler’s poor run of form continued, and the Indian top order raced away to a convincing seven-wicket win.
Shaheen Afridi, a tall left-arm seamer with the ability to extract late movement into the right-hander, possesses the perfect ingredients to trouble batters of the caliber of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Virat Kohli. His menacing pace and skillful variations have often put him in the league of formidable bowlers.
Despite the promise he carries and the threat he poses, Shaheen Afridi’s performance in the World Cup 2023 has been far from impressive. In the opening two games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka, he managed to pick up only two wickets, conceding 103 runs. Hence, his form was a significant concern for Pakistan, leading to the high-stakes clash against India.
On the match day, Rohit Sharma set the tone by attacking Shaheen Afridi from the very first ball. Although Shaheen managed to dismiss Shubman Gill in the third over, his inswing threat was nullified by the Indian skipper, who aggressively countered him during the Powerplay. India amassed 79 runs during the Powerplay, with Rohit contributing nearly 60 percent of them.
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri did not mince his words while on air as he dissected Shaheen Afridi’s performance and the hype around his new ball prowess. Shastri called a spade a spade, asserting that Pakistan needed to accept that Shaheen was not an extraordinary bowler.
“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 stated.
Joining Shastri in his criticism of Shaheen Afridi was Sunil Gavaskar, who pointed out that the young Pakistani bowler failed to learn from Jasprit Bumrah’s success with slower off-cutters, which led to two crucial wickets for India.
“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,” mentioned Gavaskar.
