Former India captain and coach Ravi Shastri, who was on air during the India-Pakistan World Cup 2023 clash, made a scathing assessment of pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi.
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India went all guns blazing while chasing Pakistan’s paltry total of 191. Shubman Gill, back from dengue, showed signs of the looming mayhem by hitting his first ball off Shaheen for a four. Gill’s 16 runs off 11 balls came in boundaries before Shaheen Shah Afridi got him out.
Skipper Rohit Sharma ensured that the tempo did not drop as he took the visiting bowlers to the cleaners. Pakistan had no answers to the onslaught: Rohit, the leading aggressor in the chase, notched up his fifty off 36 balls.
India were comfortably placed at 153-2 when left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz bowled the last bowl of the 20th over. On air, a candid Shastri didn’t mince his words while criticising Pakistan’s lacklustre outing with the ball.
Shastri took a dig at Shaheen, questioning his hype: “He is a good bowler, he can claim a wicket with the new ball. But you have to admit it, if Naseem Shah is not playing and the quality of Pakistan’s spin bowling is like this, then Shaheen is not Wasim Akram.
“He’s a good bowler, but there is no need for us to hype him so highly as well. If a player is simply a good player, we should restrict our praise to saying he is a good player. He’s not a great player, we need to admit that.”
Although Shaheen dismissed Rohit for a 63-ball 86 in the next over, the damage was already done. Pakistan slumped to their eighth straight defeat against India at the World Cup.
With Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan looking set at one stage, they looked like posting a target of over 350. However, the departure of Babar after his maiden fifty against India triggered a collapse. Pakistan slipped from 155-2 to 191 in the blink of an eye.
