SA20: Jofra is not only fighting a physical battle but a mental one as well, says Zaheer Khan

MI Cape Town went past Paarl Royals with ease on Day 1 of SA20 on Tuesday with come-back man Jofra Archer who picked up three wickets and Dewald Brevis scored a quickfire 70 helping them with a convincing eight-wicket win.

Speaking on Archer’s return to action on Match Centre Live, Viacom18 Sports expert Zaheer Khan said, “It has to be an emotional one for him as well. When you are playing after so long, pretty much your career is under scrutiny, how you are going to come back. You have to put in a whole lot of hard work, you need to be very patient as well. So, it is not just the physical battle which he must be fighting, it is mental battle as well. It’s not easy for anyone to be away from the game for that long. Injury is something that is not in your hands, but how you manage yourself it takes a lot of energy.”

Zaheer also weighed in on Brevis’ performance, “Certainly, a star in making. There is no doubt about that.” Pragyan Ojha too commended Brevis’ temperament and thought his performance was exceptional, “He was brilliant as Zak said. The most important takeaway for me is the temperament he showed. He carried the innings and finished the game.”

Ojha also felt that Brevis is the kind of player who is worth investing in and compared him to the explosive Suryakumar Yadav. “When you look at the Mumbai franchise – the universe, I’m talking about different tournaments they play different leagues then you see Suryakumar Yadav doing that now they have Brevis doing that. So that’s a big sign when you invest in these players you want these kinds of players to finish the game. In world cricket, if you see there are very less players who can start the game and finish it and these are the guys there like they’ll be like pure gold for any franchise.”

Durban’s Super Giants will play Joburg Super Kings today at 9:00 pm, live on JioCinema, Sports18 – 1, Sports18 Khel and Colors Tamil