Brisbane: Pakistan’s bowling spearhead Shaheen Afridi is back with a bang. And that’s not good news for Team India.
The left-arm pacer, playing his second warm-up match after recovering from a knee injury, delivered a toe-crushing yorker at great speed to trap Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz at the Gabba here on Wednesday.
Not only was Gurbaz adjudged leg-before wicket, he was in immense pain after being struck on his left foot and had to be carried off the field by support staff.
With three days to go for the T20 World Cup to get underway, the Afghanistan camp didn’t want to take any chances and Gurbaz was taken to the hospital for precautionary scans.
Shaheen Shah, who has been out of action for six weeks and missed the Asia Cup, went on to knock back the stumps of Hazratullah Zazai, the other opener, in a hostile spell to send warning signals to India.
India and Pakistan will clash in their opening Super 12 fixture of the T20 World Cup at Melbourne on October 23.
No Indian fan has forgotten the misery Shaheen Shah had heaped on India at last year’s T20 World Cup, played in the UAE.
In a fiery opening spell, the left-armer sent back openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma in his first two overs, and then claimed the wicket of top-scorer Virt Kohli to restrict India and set up a massive win for Pakistan.
Come Sunday, Shaheen will once again have his tails up when he bowls against a very similar Indian batting line-up at the colossal MCG. And this time, Shaheen will have another young pacer Naseem Shah to share the new ball with. Naseem proved to be quite a handful for Team India in the Asia Cup.
The onus will be on Rohit & Co. to tackle Shaheen’s pacy swing and yorkers.
