Rohit Sharma had his fair share of struggle against Shaheen Shah Afridi in the Asia Cup 2023 encounter between Pakistan and India at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy, Sri Lanka, on Saturday.
Shaheen Shah Afridi — the epitome of terror for the openers — once again shattered India's top order in the first few overs and gave Pakistan a breakthrough as he removed two of the Blues' most experienced batters.
Rohit Sharma has had a history of struggling against left-arm pacers, especially against Pakistan, and the trend continued today as Afridi trapped him with a perfect setup in the fourth over.
After two outswingers, the 23-year-old got "The Hitman" with an inswinging beauty and sent him back to the pavilion.
However, this was not the first time the 36-year-old was seen struggling against the Pakistani star and is now called the "Bunny" of Shaheen.
In four encounters against Shaheen in T20Is and 50-over matches, Sharma scored a total of 33 runs in 45 balls and lost his wicket twice in the process.
Sharma's first encounter with Afridi was in the Asia Cup 2018, even though the pacer had just started his international career while Sharma was already a veteran. The Hitman had trouble facing the Pakistani youngster and could only score 19 off 18 balls.
The two had a face-off once again in the T20 World Cup 2021 group stage match in Dubai, where Shaheen got him on the first ball of the match with an in-swinging beauty at full length.
After that, they met at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground in the T20 World 2022 group stage match. Although India won that match — thanks to one of the most memorable innings by Kohli — Sharma continued his struggle against Afridi, and only scored four runs on five balls.
When this story was filed, India were playing at 121-4 in 24 overs with Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya on the crease.
Lineups
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf.
