Shoaib Akhtar Picks Indian Cricket Team’s New ‘X-Factor‘: The Indian cricket team has been in some form of late and with the 5-0 win over New Zealand in the recently concluded T20I series, the Men in Blue have earned a lot of praise and appreciation from the whole cricket fraternity.
Former Pakistan International, Shoaib Akhtar also praised Virat Kohli’s men for their dominant display over the Kiwis. They were so dominant that even in the last two matches they tried out their bench strength and even came out of the top. The Men in Blue became the first side to win a T20 International series with a series scoreline of 5-0 and Akhtar holds high praises for Virat Kohli’s men.
When analyzing the whole series Shoaib Akhtar lauded the Indian performances with bat and bowl but he did not hold back in mentioning the foolish cricket which the Kiwi players displayed out in the field. He lashed out at experienced batter Ross Taylor who failed to finish the games twice in the series and also failed to take his team over the finishing line in his 100th T20 International.
Shoaib Akhtar who is considered a great admirer of proper fast bowling said that it was not KL Rahul or Rohit Sharma who made the difference for India. He rather feels it was Jasprit Bumrah who bowled some tough spells and did not go for plenty. He bowled two super overs which Indian won and also delivered a great performance in the final match by taking 3 wickets and giving away only 12 runs from his quota.
“Bumrah is a class act. It took him 2-3 matches to come back to full rhythm. Some bowlers take their time when they come out from injuries. He took a couple of series but today he looked a class apart. 3 for 12 was just superb. Bumrah won’t let you score 25-30 runs in the death overs. Saini (Navdeep) and Shardul (Thakur) were good too but I think Bumrah is the X-factor of the Indian side,” Shoaib Akhtar said on his YouTube channel.
Bumrah was sidelined for a long time as he missed the home series against Bangladesh South Africa and West Indies due to a stress fracture on his back and had to spend a considerable amount of time in rehabilitation at the NCA in Bangalore to speed up his recovery as he is the most precious jewel of this Indian side. “The match got close at one, point but we had belief, that we could squeeze in a couple of tight overs. First time in New Zealand, different ground dimensions, great result,” Shoaib Akhtar further added.
