Pakistan deputy captain Shadab Khan said that Rohit Sharma is the most difficult batter to bowl on the press conference in Hyderabad.
Shadab Khan’s favourite Indian cricketers
With the World Cup 2023 scheduled to start on October 5, Pakistan played a warmup match against New Zealand where the latter won the match with 5 wickets. Pakistan travelled to India on September 27 where they received a warm welcome from the Indian fans.
On this occasion, the Pakistan bowler Shadab Khan praised India skipper Rohit Sharma saying, “I admire Rohit Sharma a lot and, among the leading batsmen in the world, he is the most difficult to bowl at. Once he gets set, he becomes very dangerous. Among the bowlers, since I am a leg-spinner, it will be Kuldeep Yadav given his recent form.”
The welcome was fantastic at the airport and also a lot of people have been thronging the team hotel and hospitality wise it’s been really good,” said Shadab Khan.
“The food has been really tasty and the support staff are worried that we end up increasing our fat percentage. Hope, we get the same love in Ahmedabad where we play India.”
Pakistan faced defeat during the ICC World Cup warmup match against New Zealand on September 29 and they need to work on the bowling department. Shadab’s form is key for Pakistan in middle overs and he did not have the best figures in the Asia Cup where four of his six wickets came against Nepal with an average of 40.83.
“The Asia Cup didn’t go well but that’s the beauty of cricket you learn from your mistakes and there is always an opportunity to learn and play good cricket. After we lost the Asia Cup we got good rest and I believe it’s no more a skill game but a mental game and it’s the World Cup situation. You can make good decisions when you are relaxed mentally.”
“I do understand that my recent form is not good but I have the skills. Just that when you are performing you are mentally a bit down but skill there is no issue.
“When you wear the green jersey there is a lot of expectation from our people and fans and especially when we play in India. The World Cup for a player is that if you perform, you will be a superstar,” he said.
“Conditions will change as we will be playing in different venues and we have to adapt to conditions very quickly and also fitness-wise as it’s a long tournament and the Asia Cup saw some fast bowlers getting injured. So fitness will be a concern for all teams but hopefully not for us as we lost one of the key players already.”
“Babar, Rizwan Iman are our consistent and this is my feeling that the team that bowls well win the World Cup. It will be difficult to contain the batsmen and pick wickets given the nature of flat tracks and short boundaries. We have world-class bowlers and as a bowling unit if we perform well we will become champions,” he concluded.
Pakistan is scheduled to play against Australia in the ICC warmup games, on October 3 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
