Dubai: New Zealand speedster Trent Boult said he is looking forward to replicate Shaheen Afridi’s heroic spell against India after he saw how India’s top order struggled against the pace and swing of Shaheen Shah Afridi at India- Pakistan clash.
India and New Zealand will battle it out against each other in the Super 12 stages of the World Cup on Sunday at Dubai, which is key to both sides’ hopes of making it to the semi-finals, as a loss for any team will all but end their hopes of making it to the top four. Both sides will enter the contest after suffering a loss against Pakistan and will be hopeful of bouncing back on Sunday.
“I thought the way Shaheen bowled the other night from a left-armer, watching on I thought it was amazing. Early wickets are definitely the focus for us as a bowling group. Hopefully, from my point of view, it swings around a little bit and I can mirror what Shaheen did the other night.” said Boult.
Responding to Boult’s recent comment Virat Kohli came up with a befitting response saying he and his batters are ready for the challenge and will come prepared to counter-attack.
“We are obviously going to come up against quality bowlers. It all depends on how we take the field and the mentality. If he is motivated to emulate Shaheen, we are motivated to counter him. We have played against them for a long time,” said Kohli during the pre-match presser on Saturday.
“It’s not something out of the ordinary that’s gonna come our way and it all depends on how we take the field mentally and how we counter that. If Trent says he wants to replicate what Shaheen did against us, he is motivated to do so and we have to be motivated to counter that and put pressure on him and the other bowlers as well. That’s how basically the game goes, anyway,” he concluded.
