Gill’s assault removed Shaheen Afridi from the attack as Indians launched a counterattack against the new ball.
Few could have predicted what would happen when the Afridi vs. India Round 2 of the Asia Cup got started in Colombo.
No batsman had ever hit Shaheen Shah Afridi for a six in his opening over before Sunday. That would be turned into a tale by Rohit Sharma. The left-arm bowler has never allowed more than five boundaries in a game in the 42 ODIs he has played. All six of Shubman Gill’s boundaries came off him in the first three overs of Afridi. India got off to the kind of start no one anticipated when they were 123/2 in 17.5 overs when their openers left, and by the time the rain stopped the match, India had reached 147 for 2 in 24.1 overs with the match scheduled to continue on Monday.
India did not even try to play with fire in this situation. In a steel cage match, Rohit and Gill entered the ring like Triple H had a plan and executed it with such authority that each shot had you wondering, “Why don’t they play this often?” First, Rohit put the ball over the square-leg ropes where it belonged after Afridi pitched one that swung in late into the leg-stump. The tone was established when the Indian captain played a lofted shot off Naseem Shah in the second over.
In actuality, it was the opening over’s missed half-volley that gave it life. Rohit Sharma winced as he gently patted the ball to the off, much as he had done after missing a leg-stump hit-me ball in the third ball. Beyond square-leg, a ball was tossed back from the stands.
