New Delhi: Batting great Sachin Tendulkar offered a valuable piece of advice to face Pakistan pace sensation Shaheen Shah Afridi in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Shaheen has turned out to be one of the best bowlers in the past couple of years with his ability to swing bowl. He also bowls consistently over 140kph which troubled many batsmen, however, the Pakistani pacer was out of action before the T20 World Cup due to a knee injury. He will be under the scanners in Australia as the tournament will mark his return to competitive cricket after months.
At his peak, Tendulkar played a lot of limited-overs cricket against Wasim Akram, one of the greatest left-arm fast bowler of all time and the master blaster did share his observations with media during a chat.
What Sachin Tendulkar would do against Pakistan
Asked what he would have done had he faced a bowler of Shaheen’s calibre during his playing days, Tendulkar laughed and said, “I have not put my mind as such since I know I won’t be facing him.”
“Shaheen is an attacking bowler and he likes to go for wickets. He pitches the ball up and backs himself to swing the ball. He has the capability to beat the batters in the air and off the pitch with his pace upfront. So with him strategy should be to play straight and within the ‘V’,” Tendulkar added.
Sachin’s Strategy to Tackle Shaheen
In the 2021 T20 WC, Shaheen troubled a lot of right-handed batters including current India skipper Rohit Sharam with his inswinging deliveries at a high pace. He also has a good short ball which can hurry batsmen and make them victims for LBW.
Tendulkar, a technician par excellence, also warned that even if a batter makes trigger movement (the initial reflex movement), it shouldn’t be akin to making a commitment to play the shot.
“Trigger movement is a preparation to play the ball and not commitment, if you are not committing to play the ball, it could be either on front-foot or backfoot, but it is a trigger movement and not commitment,” he said.
“Because once you are committed on backfoot, you can’t come on the front-foot and vice versa. Trigger movement is about preparation. Every ball, there is some kind of movement, as long as that is not commitment it is fine,” Tendulkar concluded.
India will start their campaign against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup at Melbourne Cricket Ground on October 23. Earlier, this year, India faced Pakistan twice in Asia Cup 2022, the men in blue won the first tie but suffered defeat in the Super 4 stage.
