Shaheen Afridi continued his merry ways as he dismissed India’s in-form opener, KL Rahul, with a beautiful inswinging delivery. Rahul had no answers to the amount of swing being generated by Shaheen and had to walk back after scoring 3 off 8 deliveries.
Pakistan made the perfect start after opting to bowl first. Shaheen removed Rohit Sharma with a pacy inswinging yorker to send jitters down Indian fans’ spines. It was a first-ball duck for Rohit to start off the tournament. Shaheen wasn’t done, however.
The youngster, in the middle of one of his best-ever spells, got one to zip off the surface and come in at a high pace. Rahul was unable to get his feet sorted in time, and attempted a flick but it was in vain. The ball caught the inside edge and crashed into the stumps.
It was a huge blow to India as Rahul was their best batsman leading up to the T20 World Cup. He was the third-highest run-scorer in the IPL 2021 season and also had two great outings in the warmup matches against England and Australia. It wasn’t his day though, as the 21-year-old Shaheen Afridi turned up for the big occasion.