“Don’t look to survive against Shaheen Afridi”: Gautam Gambhir’s key advice to Indian batters for Pakistan game

All eyes are set for the much-awaited T20 World Cup 2022, scheduled to begin on October 16 in Australia. Almost all the teams have arrived down under for the one similar goal of bagging the ICC title.

Asian giants India and Pakistan will start their campaign against each other on October 23 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. Ahead of the high-voltage clash, former India opener Gautam Gambhir has come up with a key advice for the Indian players regarding how to play Pakistani pacer Shaheen Afridi.

Notably, Afridi had destroyed the Indian top order in the 2021 T20 World Cup match. The left-arm seamer had removed India’s openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in his first two overs and then dismissed a well-settled Virat Kohli in the death overs. There is no denying that Afridi was one of the main reasons behind Pakistan’s first-ever victory against India in a World Cup match across formats.

Now once again, India will have to face the pace sensation of Pakistan, and in order to come on top of him, Gambhir has a game plan which says to go into attacking mode against Afridi rather than surviving against the lanky pacer.

“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,” said Gambhir on Star Sports show ‘Game Plan’.

“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,” he added.

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October 14, 2022 at 08:25PM