Colombo, Sep 21 : Legendary Sri Lankan batter Mahela Jayawardene has said the emergence of teenage pacer Naseem Shah has been the biggest positive for Pakistan along with a fit-again Shaheen Shah Afridi ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia next month.
While skipper Babar Azam’s form with the bat is a bit of a concern for the semifinalists of the 2021 edition of the tournament, Jayawardene feels the Pakistani quicks, especially Shah and Afridi, are match winners on any given day.
The 19-year-old Shah scalped seven wickets at an economy of 7.66 in five matches during the Asia Cup in the UAE and his big-hitting too — he smashed two sixes against Afghanistan that played a crucial role in Pakistan’s victory — has come in for praise.
“I’ve been following Naseem for a while now,” Jayawardena said on The ICC Review.”Obviously, they have used him a lot in red-ball cricket, in Test match cricket because of his pace.They did not back him too much with the accuracy with the white-ball format but lately, with a lot of cricket being played, he has come of age and the control that he showed, especially with the new ball, picking up wickets … that’s the key element.
“That Pakistan attack will look much stronger with Shaheen Afridi back as well, and the way Haris Rauf bowled.He bowled quickly.With the two youngsters, they’ve got a really, really good pace unit.And Naseem has been brilliant, I was really impressed by the way he went about things.The skills, especially bringing the ball back into the right-handers, the way he swung the ball with that kind of pace,” opined Jayawardene.
“In Australian conditions, those guys will be a handful.Especially for quite a few opening batsmen, it will be a nightmare if Shaheen and Naseem bowl in tandem from both ends.”
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