As the Asia Cup 2023 is just around the corner, the fear of Pakistan's primary pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi is growing inside the Indian camp, and with the recent performances of Pakistani pacers against Afghanistan, the neighbours' concerns are increasing.
Similarly, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, whose fate was decided by Afridi in the first over during the Pakistan v India encounter in the T20 World Cup 2021 in Dubai, has started to practice with left-arm pacers in the training camp.
Sharma has had a history of having trouble against left-arm pacers, especially against Pakistan.
It began in 2016 when Pakistan's Mohammad Amir took him out for 0 in the Asia Cup 2016 in Bangladesh.
Just after a year, he faced Amir once again in the final of the Champions Trophy 2017 at The Oval and fell prey to an in-swinging beauty, once again on a duck.
Sharma's first encounter with Afridi happened 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, where Shaheen got him on the first ball of the match with an in-swinging beauty at full length.
Their most recent encounter was in the T20 World 2022 group stage match. Although India won that match — thanks to one of the most memorable innings by Virat Kohli — Sharma continued his struggle against Afridi, and only scored four runs on five balls.
Other than the 36-year-old, the Indian batters are focused on playing Pakistani pacers in the powerplay because of their recent struggles.
Meanwhile, Kohli prepares to face the spinners in the upcoming Asian event.
It must be noted that the arch-rivals will play each other on September 2 in Kandy, which will be India's first match of the Asia Cup.
They are also likely to have a face-off in the super four stages.
Squads
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Tayyab Tahir, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Haris, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi.
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (vc), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
- Rohit Sharma
