There are some things that can be quantified. And then there are some where you struggle for adjectives. In total, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill stroked 16 fours and four sixes in the Super Fours game against Pakistan at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. But there was one shot that just forced you to turn the pages of the dictionary – Rohit flicking Shaheen Afridi over backward square leg.
There was nonchalance written all over that shot. There was also a subplot attached to that one stroke. For a period of time, Rohit has been troubled by the angle and movement of left-arm pace bowlers. In particular, Afridi seemed to have gained a mental edge over him. In the T20 World Cup in 2021, he was removed by a picture-perfect inswinger.
In India’s opening fixture of the ongoing Asia Cup, Afridi cleaned him up with the inswinger. He dismissed Rohit after beating him on the outside edge with a couple of deliveries that moved away appreciably off the seam, which would have played on Rohit’s mind. In that context, the shot felt like a statement made by Rohit to Afridi. It also signalled India’s intent to disrupt Pakistan’s famed pace troika with a volley of shots.
Gill followed in the footsteps of his captain by collecting three fours in a single over off Afridi. Gill, who has had his share of contests against Afridi from the Under-19 days, even walked down the deck to sow some seeds of doubt in the bowler’s mind.
But the highlight of those three fours was the straight drive. The big toe seemed ready and poised. He committed early, and the front foot moved towards the pitch of the ball to essay the shot. In Afridi’s next over, too, Gill loaded early and employed the cover drive. Incidentally, Gill has been working on his front-foot game in the nets during the Asia Cup.
In between, the opening duo had to negotiate a way through a superlative spell from Naseem Shah. Unlike his pace colleague, Afridi, Naseem hit a shorter length and extracted more than enough seam movement. He whistled past the outside edges of both the batters and even produced an edge or two. However, even during that phase, Rohit and Gill were intent on dealing in boundaries. The way Rohit flicked and pulled Naseem in the 10th over after being beaten on the outside edge was testament to that.
Rohit decided to put more pressure on the Pakistan attack by thumping some half-trackers from Shadab Khan. Eventually, when Rohit was dismissed by Shadab, India’s score read 121 for 1 from just over 16 overs.
For the last couple of years, it seemed as if the Pakistan pace attack had a clear upper hand over the Indian top order. India needed someone to play with a bit of bravado against the likes of Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem. The opening pair certainly did that. Unfortunately, on a day where Gill and Rohit turbocharged their engines and put on a wonderful exhibition of batting, rain again played spoilsport.