Shaheen Afridi wants this Indian batting trio as his dream hat-trick
Pakistan speedster Shaheen Afridi named the famed Indian trio of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli as his dream hat-trick. Shaheen, neighbours’ fast-bowling sensation, also named Kohli as his prized wicket so far.
The 21-year-old pacer replied to a query on ’25 questions’ with ESPNcricinfo and repeated the names of the dismissed batters from his famous spell in the Indo-Pak T20 World Cup 2021 encounter in Dubai last year.
Shaheen Afridi called “Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli” as his dream set of batters dismissed in a hat-trick, having taken the scalp of the three big names during that unforgettable World Cup encounter.
WATCH: Rohit Sharma And KL Rahul Fall Prey To The Brilliance Of Shaheen Afridi
Shaheen Afridi bowled a memorable spell in the India-Pakistan T20 World Cup game last year.
Shaheen Afridi reminisce India-Pakistan T20 World Cup game
Shaheen Afridi’s opening burst in the game played in Dubai helped Pakistan clinch their maiden ever World Cup win against arch-rivals India. His spell of 3/31 included all the big wickets.
Shaheen got Rohit out pinned infront of the stumps with a sharp inswinging delivery in the very first over of the game.
WATCH: Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul fall prey to the brilliance of Shaheen Afridi
Having set the tone up for Pakistan, he got the opposition’s fellow opener Rahul in his next over.
This was another beautiful inswinging ball at high speeds, which sneaked through the tiny gap between Rahul’s willow and his back-pad to hit the stumps.
But perhaps his biggest strike of the day came later in the innings when the young quick got the great Kohli out when he was threatening to put India in the ascendancy.
Batting on 57 at the time after having resurrected the Indian innings from those early blows, Kohli was eyeing a big finish. But the hopes of the then Indian T20I skipper vanished through one piece of brilliance from Shaheen Afridi.
He surprised Kohli with a slowish bouncer and the batter going too early with his attempted pull, only managed to top-edge the delivery to Pakistan wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan.
WATCH: Shaheen Afridi loses cool, hits striker with throw on followthrough
This is the dismissal, especially its timing, that made the pacer call it is his prized scalp.
For his excellent spell on the big night, Shaheen was rewarded with the ‘Player of the Match’ award after Pakistan’s comprehensive ten-wicket victory.
The pacer will be hoping to repeat his feat when the two arch-rivals meet again in Australia in the next edition of the T20 World Cup this year on October 23 in Melbourne.