Afghanistan Is ‘Exceptionally Dangerous’; Their Mystery Spinners Are Risk To Indian Batter: Sunil Gavaskar
Spinners have played a key role in India's defeats, with both Pakistan and New Zealand utilizing them to restrict the run flow in the middle overs
Mumbai: Ahead of the clash between India and Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup, Sunil Gavaskar has called the opponent Afghanistan “exceptionally dangerous”.
Speaking in an interview with Sports Today, Gavaskar noted that while Afghanistan’s batters are risk-takers who play freely, their mystery spinners can also expose the vulnerabilities of Indian batters. Also Read: Afghanistan Have Better Bowling Than Bangladesh, Sri Lanka: Gautam Gambhir Warns India
Sunil Gavaskar said, “Yes, they are exceptionally dangerous… because they are a team that’s unafraid to play their shots in the 20-over game, they just go out and swing their bats quite happily. They have got mystery spinners and Indian batters in recent times have shown a certain vulnerability against top-quality spin, particularly the back-of-the-hand spin.”
Sunil Gavaskar also called Mohammad Nabi’s team a “banana peel” opponent who should not be taken lightly.
“I think they are, like the commonly used word, a ‘banana peel’ opponent because you tend to not take them too seriously and you can, you know, slip and fall down playing against them.”
India has had a disastrous run in the T20 World Cup 2021 so far, going down to Pakistan by 10 wickets and New Zealand by eight wickets. Their hopes of staying alive in the tournament will hinge on today’s game’s result.
Afghanistan, on the flip side, has played excellent cricket so far. They defeated Scotland and Namibia and challenged Pakistan to the hilt before losing out in the end. Their goal will inarguably be to hit the Indians at arguably their lowest point and squeeze out a famous win.
Spinners have played a major role in India’s two defeats, with both Pakistan and New Zealand utilizing them to restrict the run flow in the middle overs.
Sunil Gavaskar said that Afghanistan’s tweakers, especially Rashid Khan, will pose an even bigger challenge to those two teams.
He added the Indian batters will have to take a more proactive approach against them by using their feet to counter the turn and force Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman off their lines and lengths.
Sunil Gavaskar said, “You’ve got to say that the Afghanistan spinners, Rashid Khan, in particular, are going to be a bigger challenge than, say, an Ish Sodhi or Imad Wasim. So India really needs to step up, need to be aggressive, [the batters] need to come down the pitch a bit more to counter the turn. There won’t much turn here in Abu Dhabi… so I think you need to try and throw the bowler off by trying to step down the pitch by making him change his length, the line.”
Sunil Gavaskar concluded by saying, “Do something different to both these bowlers because if you don’t do that then they are going to bowl their four overs for 25-30 runs and that’s going to be tremendous. Because if you have bowled 8 overs for 55-60 runs, you have done a fabulous job for your team.”
Virat Kohli and Co. Will go after Afghanistan in their must-win Super 12, Group 2 match in Abu Dhabi. India’s only hope of qualifying for the semi-finals is wining against Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia, and then hope any of these three sides would go on to beat New Zealand, bringing the net run rate into play.
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