Shaheen Afridi put on a show with the ball during Pakistan’s high-voltage Asia Cup 2023 match against India in Pallekele last week.
The left-arm pacer dismissed star batters Rohit Sharma (11) and Virat Kohli (4) with the new ball. He also took the wickets of India's top-scorer Hardik Pandya (87) and Ravindra Jadeja (14) in the death overs to return with the figures of 4 for 35 in his 10 overs.
As India are gearing up to face Pakistan again in the Super-4 around on September 10, former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has offered an important advice to India’s top-order batters to tackle Shaheen.
"Actually, the match between India and Pakistan was a very interesting clash between Shaheen Afridi versus India's 1, 2, and 3,” Manjrekar said on Star Sports.
“Gill, Rohit, and Virat. The opening phase had two spells; in the first spell before the rain had come, he was bowling typical Shaheen Afridi kind of deliveries. He was bowling further up the pitch, trying to get the ball to swing inwards, and that length was being played very well by Shubhman Gill and Rohit Sharma," he added.
Manjrekar felt that Indian batters failed to read Shaheen when he pulled his length back after the rain interruption.
"After that, the rain happened, and Waqar Younis, who was in commentary with me, said that he should pull his length a bit back; it should be a little short. And after the rain, someone must have spoken to Shaheen Afridi, and after the break, he brought his length back and in that length, the good length, Rohit Sharma got out, and so did Virat. So it wasn't the typical Shaheen Afridi kind of delivery that troubled the Indian batters, but the shorter length, meaning the movement from the pitch made them out," he remarked.
Manjrekar said India need to prepare for Afridi's good length deliveries for their Asia Cup Super-4 match in Colombo.
"They need to prepare for these kinds of deliveries as well, but for the main swinging delivery of Shaheen Afridi, the good news was that both Rohit Sharma and Shubhman Gill weren't phased by that," he concluded.
