India’s preparation for the upcoming Asia Cup 2023 and the World Cup 2023 are in full flow. The Indian players bound for Sri Lanka, where the Rohit Sharma’ led team will play their Asia Cup matches, are currently undergoing a 6-day training and fitness camp in Alur in Bangalore.
One key topic of discussion is how the Indian captain and opener, Rohit Sharma, will overcome the mighty challenge of Pakistan’s spearhead left-arm seamer Shaheen Afridi in the Asia Cup and the World Cup.
India’s top-order has had struggles against left-arm swing bowlers in recent years. The scars given by Mohammed Amir from the 2017 Champions Trophy final, by Trent Boult from the 2019 World Cup semi-final, and by Shaheen Afridi from the 2021 T20 World Cup, are still fresh in the Indian fans’ minds.
To tackle Shaheen Afridi in the upcoming matches, the Indian pacers are leaving no stone unturned. India called upon Rajasthan’s left-arm pacer Aniket Choudhary to the camp in Alur.
Choudhary, who has 247 first-class wickets, is known to swing the ball and bowled to the Indian batters on Day 2 and Day 3 of the camp in Alur. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul faced Choudhary in the training camp in order to get them the feel of facing Shaheen. Choudhary featured in 5 IPL matches for RCB in 2017, so the management had known about his abilities and hence rang him up to give practice to the Indian batters.
Star Sports tracked down India’s practise session, revealing that Rohit and Rahul are facing Choudhary in the match simulations.
Rohit Sharma’s record vs Shaheen Afridi
Rohit Sharma first faced Shaheen Afridi in the 2018 Asia Cup matches, scoring 18 runs in 19 balls and not getting dismissed. However, the Pakistani pacer dismissed Rohit, along with KL Rahul and Virat Kohli, in their meeting in Dubai in the 2021 T20 World Cup.
In the 2022 T20 World Cup encounter at the MCG, Shaheen bowled 5 balls to Rohit, conceding only 4 runs.
Shaheen Afridi is one of the best new-ball bowlers in the world, arguably the most threatening at the moment in the powerplay. He has taken wickets of 29 right-handers in 20 innings since the last World Cup.
Former India batsman and respected commentator Sanjay Manjrekar gave advice to the Indian batters to face Shaheen.
“One should target the bowler, for that, the head position needs to be perfect and one needs to set himself and think of scoring runs between mid-off and mid -on / mid-wicket areas. The batsman will get a chance to get into a better position against that angle [left-arm] and one needs to learn and know where runs can be scored against angle bowling and on what all aspects the batsman needs to focus more. So, during practice Rohit Sharma would have been focusing on these areas, “ Manjrekar told Star Sports.
