Irfan Pathan has praised young bowler Arshdeep Singh and said that he was impressed by his bowling in the death overs for Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the IPL 2022 and wants him to play all the T20I matches in the upcoming five-match series between India and South Africa beginning June 9.
Arshdeep and Umran Malik were the two uncapped cricketers who received their maiden callup to the Indian team for the South Africa T20Is, which begin in Delhi. Arshdeep was particularly impressive in the death overs and overall, in 14 games, Arshdeep picked 10 wickets.
Speaking to Star Sports, Irfan hailed Arshdeep's death-bowling skill and backed the youngster to play all the five games in the impending series against the Proteas.
"If you see the IPL numbers in terms of the wickets, the matches are more and the wickets are less, still the selectors backed him and picked him in the squad. There is a reason for that, he keeps the best batters quiet, when he bowls at the death, he keeps Dhoni, Hardik Pandya quiet, bowls consistent yorkers against the set batters," he said.
"You picked a left-arm bowler in your squad based on some thinking, because left is always right. So play him all the matches and he is a bowler who raises his hand for his team whenever there is a difficult situation, that he will bowl the yorkers and try to pick up wickets," he added.
Among 27 bowlers who delivered at least 60 deliveries in the death overs during IPL 2022, Arshdeep (7.91) has the second-best economy rate among pacers after Jasprit Bumrah (7.66). The left-armer also delivered the joint-most yorkers (38) during IPL 2022, along with Bumrah.
