How to break Shaheen Afridi’s code of deception? Play the ball, not the bowler: Aquib Javed advices Indian batsmen

Take Rohit Sharma’s last dismissal. The Indian opener has been around on the international circuit for close to two decades. In India’s opening Asia Cup game, he didn’t look the part. He was tentative, unsure about leaving, playing, attacking or defending. Shaheen would soon get him.

Shaheen to Rohit

Left – previous ball
Right- Wicket ball pic.twitter.com/0muG7mV0c0

— Nibraz Ramzan (@nibraz88cricket) September 3, 2023

Former Pakistan pacer Aquib Javed has seen Shaheen grow from a teenager with just the ‘away going’ ball to the modern day Sultan of Swing. He is a veteran of many India-Pakistan duels. His best figures, three of his four fivers have been against India. In his pomp, late 80s and 90s, he would share the new ball with Wasim Akram with Waqar Younis being first-change.

The 51-year-old is driving, he asks to call after 10 minutes. In a couple of rings, he is on the line. In a good mood, most of his answers are followed by a loud cackle. Pakistan’s present attack of Shaheen, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf reminds of his good times with the two Ws.

India’s captain Rohit Sharma is bowled out by Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi during the Asia Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan in Pallekele, Sri Lanka

“It’s back to the 90s. This pace attack has the same quality. I would be Naseem, Haris is like Waqar,” he says without stating the obvious Shaheen-Wasim parallel. Aquib seemed to have watched the India-Pakistan game at Pallekele with an eagle’s eye. He has a handle on India’s problem, laughs at their remedial measures but also offers solutions.

“Shaheen has become a bowler who impacts the minds. This brain is a complex thing. It needs clarity, it wants to know what is to be done and not ‘maybe, I can do this’. There is confusion in their minds. Have you seen the technique of Indian batsmen? They are not playing the ball, they are playing the bowler. It was the same confusion in the 90s,” he says referring to the decade when Pakistan won the World Cup and won 60 per cent of their ODIs against India.

Soon the conversation veers to Shaheen’s main weapon – the in-coming ball. “That ball is the reason for the confusion. If you don’t know which way the ball is going to move, you will be confused,” he says, comparing the Indian batsmen to a licensed driver who suddenly after 10 years on road puts an ‘L’ on his car and appears clueless.

So what is it about Shaheen that makes the game’s greats look like drivers with L on their cars? It’s the wrist, the most complex part of the human anatomy. “Over the years the big difference between pacers from Pakistan and those from the rest of the world is the wrist. Tape ball cricket (tennis ball wrapped in tape) helps us to give the hard ball a whip with the wrist and that makes a difference,” he says.

India’s Virat Kohli is bowled out by Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi during the Asia Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan at Pallekele, Sri Lanka. (AP | PTI)

It’s that ‘whip of the wrist’ that makes the ball swing late and it also makes him bowl a deadly slower ball with which he scalped Hardik Pandya in the game. Aquib shares the secret of the other arrow in Shaheen’s quiver. “You don’t decrease the arm speed but just kill the pace with your wrist,” he says. It is this subtle nuance that adds complexity to Shaheen’s simple game plan. That’s how he fools a seasoned batsman like Rohit with cricket’s oldest con – ‘two going away, third one coming in’. It’s the mastery of this delicate art that debunks proven theories, defies algorithms and makes data analysis look utterly insufficient.

Most importantly, it also helps sports retain its most precious ethos – the delirious unpredictability. AI can write poems, computers can continue to beat the world’s best chess players, data crunchers can position themselves as modern-day soothsayers but sportspersons like Shaheen, with delightful regularity, continue to flaunt superiority of the human minds.

No pundit or super computer can predict if the ball released from the hands of the Pakistan pacer will hold its line or be that mind-bender that knocked Rohit’s stump. Something similar happens on a tennis court when the game’s latest sensation Carlos Alcaraz goes around his backhand and positions himself for the kill. Will he unleash that thunderous forehand or change plans at the last minute and play that delicious drop? These are tough choices but those with a fight in them, end up taking the right calls.

The Indian batsmen can do well by awakening the inner Djokovic in them. Even in defeat, they should show gumption. Aquib suggests something similar. “They need to forget who is bowling. They are missing half volleys, they are not attacking, they are not thinking of scoring runs. They need to be hitting fours, they shouldn’t just think of surviving,” he says.

Net drills, tips of the coaches and long hours staring at the laptop are also not part of Aquib’s toolkit for change. “That’s the worst thing one can do. Whatever be your technique, you are Kohli because you play like a Kohli. All of a sudden you can’t become Chanderpaul,” he says as another loud chuckle crosses the border through the phone line.

From someone who has seen the peak of India-Pakistan cricket frenzy from those Sharjah days, it’s not about the feet, hands, elbow or head position. When the neighbours meet, it’s all about the mind.

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