IND vs NZ | If Trent Boult wants to replicate Shaheen Afridi’s spell, we need to counter that, says Virat Kohli

IND vs NZ | If Trent Boult wants to replicate Shaheen Afridi’s spell, we need to counter that, says Virat Kohli

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Virat Kohli said that his team need to counter threat from Trent Boult

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Virat Kohli has said that if Trent Boult wants to replicate Pakistan’s left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi’s spell on Sunday, then the team needs to counter that. Both the teams have lost their opening games against Pakistan and will be looking to register their first win in the T20 World Cup 2021.

India and New Zealand did not have a good start to the tournament, both the teams losing to Pakistan in the opener. India lost to Pakistan for the first time in the history of the T20 World Cup 2021 on October 24 by 10-wickets in Dubai while New Zealand lost by five wickets against the Babar Azam-led in a closely contested match on Tuesday, October 26 in Sharjah. Both the teams have had a decent break between the games and will look to start afresh. The last time India won against the Kiwis in an ICC tournament was back in 2003 when the Men In Blue beat Kiwis by seven wickets.

Since then, India have lost to The Blacl Caps on different occasions in the ICC tournaments such as 2007 T20 World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup, 2019 World Cup and the Test Championship final earlier this year. Meanwhile Kohli said that the team will look to counter Trent Boult’s bowling. 

“We obviously will come up against some quality bowlers in this competition and the intensity which this tournament operates at is very different. So we know that we have played against these individuals, it is not something out of the ordinary that is going to come our way.”

“It all depends on how we take the field mentally and how we counter it if Trent says he wants to replicate what Shaheen did against us then he is motivated to do so and we need to be motivated to put pressure on him and counter that,” said Kohli.

Notably, Trent Boult, in his pre-match press conference had said that he would like to replicate Pakistan left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi’s spell against the Virat Kohli-led team. Afridi had wreaked havoc India to give his team a dream start in the ongoing showpiece event. The 21-year-old dismissed Rohit Sharma for a golden duck before returning in the third over to send KL Rahul packing. Later in the match, he dismissed India captain Virat Kohli as well. 

“I suppose it depends on when I get the ball, I am not sure what the plan is with what overs certain bowlers are bowling. The way Shaheen bowled against India was amazing, but yeah India has quality batters, early wickets are the focus for us but we need to be nice and accurate of where we are trying to put the ball.”

“Hopefully, it swings around a little bit and I can mirror what Shaheen did the other night,” said Boult. 

The contest between the two teams will kick off from 7:30 PM IST on Sunday, October 31. 

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