Dubai: Pakistan’s left-arm pacer Usman Khan Shinwari, who bagged three wickets in one over against Hong Kong to destroy their middle order on Sunday, is now aiming to produce another bigger spell against India on Wednesday.
Shinwari has his reasons as to why he wants to produce a deadly spell against India. “Any player who performs well in an India-Pakistan match finds his career reach a new high and every player dreams of doing well in this contest. I took three wickets today, I hope that can be five wickets against India.”
Shinwari has analysed India’s strengths to plan ahead. “India is a No. 1 team and Pakistan are also a very good side with the players in good nick. So as far as the India-Pakistan match goes, whichever team plays better on the day will win the match.”
Talking about his deadly spell against Hong Kong, he said: “Today’s wicket was slowish, but I was trying to bowl fast. With the new ball, I was going for wickets but I didn’t get any. When I came on for my second spell, the ball was scuffed up so I got reverse swing. I’m happy with the bowling and I managed to bowl like I wanted to. It’s fun to bowl with competition, some healthy competition among the bowlers, and we play our cricket from session to session and give our best at all times.”
When asked about his senior bowling partner Mohammad Amir, who has been struggling for wickets, Shinwari said: “Wickets can depend on luck. On some days, you bowl ordinarily and get a lot of wickets, on other days you’ll bowl extremely well and not get a single wicket. Amir has been bowling well in most matches, hopefully, he’ll be able to get some wickets next match onwards.”
Hong Kong skipper Anshuman Rath admitted that his team did not bat well. “There were a lot of soft dismissals and 120 is not good enough. Credit to the Pakistani bowlers but I think there were a lot of soft dismissals. Their spinners were top class, but we didn’t score enough.”
