Rohit Sharma don’t Able to Read Shaheen Afridi at all: Former Pakistani pacer Shoaib Akhtar thinks Rohit Sharma has a tough time reading Shaheen Afridi with the new ball. In the aftermath of a break brought on by the rain on Saturday at the Pallekele International Stadium, Afridi castled Rohit with a ball that came back in off the seam.

The Indian skipper was dismissed by the left-arm pacer’s inswinging yorker when the two arch-rivals met at the 2021 T20 World Cup. Rohit already has a dodgy record against left-arm seamers, and Afridi being one of the best in the business does not help him one bit.

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Rohit tried to play for the inswing, but Afridi effectively put the ball away several times by changing the angle. After the ball finally moved back in enough to hit the stumps and breach the bat-pad gap, Rohit was forced to return to the pavilion after only scoring 11 runs from 22 deliveries.

“I don’t think Rohit is able to read or understand Shaheen at all. The visual of Rohit Sharma being beaten like this was not good, he is a far better player than this. Rohit can bat much better than this, I think he is worrying too much.”

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“The constant interruptions by rain, leading to the players going off the ground and coming back in, it affects the focus of the batters. Gill lost his wicket exactly because of this reason, he lost his concentration, and that is why he played such a loose shot.”

The last time Rohit Sharma faced Shaheen Afridi in an ODI was in 2018, when the spinner was still quite inexperienced. After some time, he became one of the top fast bowlers in the world and is perhaps the best in the industry with the new ball.

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“What a spell it was by Shaheen Afridi, what a bowler he is. Everyone knows what he will do, pitch it full and bring it back in, and in spite that Rohit Sharma had no answer. Buthwhat is Rohit Sharma supposed to do, in his defense he had last played him in 2022, he does not get the opportunity to face him too often,” Akhtar explained.

The Men in Green, who earlier beat Nepal, secured passage to the Super Fours stage with the help of the point they received for the washed-out match against India.