‘It’s his wicket’ – Shaheen Afridi reveals how Shoaib Malik helped him dismissing KL Rahul

Pakistan have indeed been on a roll in the T20 World Cup 2021. The Men in Green won all their five matches in the league stage and would like to shine in the knock-out games as well. While Pakistan performed brilliantly throughout this competition, Shaheen Afridi set the base with a scintillating opening spell against India in Pakistan’s opening fixture in the tournament.

The left-arm speedster made the ball talk and dismissed both Indian openers – Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul – cheaply. He also went onto dismiss Virat Kohli as the Babar Azam-led side won the contest by 10 wickets. Afridi even bagged the Player-of-the-Match award for his fiery spell. Speaking of his terrific spell, the fast bowler credited veteran all-rounder Shoaib Malik for Rahul’s ouster.

Shoaib Malik knows everything because he played in all conditions: Shaheen Afridi

It was the first ball of the third over and Afridi had bowled a good-length delivery that pierced Rahul’s defenses. The in-form batter looked utterly clueless and his stumps were disturbed. In an interaction with Telegraph, Afridi said he initially planned to trouble Rahul with a full-length delivery. However, Malik advised him to continue bowling the length and there’s swing on offer.

“I asked Shoaib, can I bowl fuller? He said to me ‘Shaheen don’t bowl fuller, just try to bowl length here, yeah? So I said yeah, not too much swing in first over, so let me try to bowl the ball,” said Shaheen while talking to The Telegraph.

“Shoaib is playing for 22 years for Pakistan. He’s played a lot of cricket, he knows everything because every conditions, he played in… he has experience so that’s why I asked him which ball shall I bowl to Rahul,” he added. “Thank you, it’s not my wicket, it’s your wicket,” Shaheen said to Malik after dismissing Rahul.

Meanwhile, Afridi’s stellar show with the ball restricted India to a modest 151-7 in their allotted 20 overs. With the Dubai track offering assistance to Pakistan bowlers, India were also expected to make a comeback. However, nothing as such happened as Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan didn’t put a foot wrong and took their side to a historic 10-wicket win.