T20 World Cup: Hopefully I can mirror what Shaheen Shah Afridi did to India, says Trent Boult

New Zealand fast-bowler Trent Boult has expressed his desire to emulate Pakistan pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi’s heroics against India last Sunday in Dubai. Boult has accounted for 71 dismissals in 26 games against India across formats. He further enjoys a great record against opening batter Rohit Sharma, having dismissed him three times in seven T20 innings while giving up only 29 runs off 24 balls.

“It depends when I get to bowl. Not too sure what the plan is with what overs certain bowlers are bowling, but yeah the way Shaheen bowled the other night was… from a left-armer watching on I thought it was amazing. But, yeah, there’s qualify batsmen in that Indian line-up. Early wickets are definitely the focus for us as a bowling group. But, here, we just need to be nice and clear and nice and accurate where we are trying to put the ball. But, hopefully from my point of view, it swings around a little bit and I can mirror what Shaheen did the other night,” said Boult as quoted by Cricinfo.

“Whatever we do first, we need to do it extremely well”

New Zealand are missing out on the presence of pacer Lockie Ferguson, who has been sidelined from the rest of the tournament with a calf tear. They have a replacement in Adam Milne who has been upgraded from the reserves.

“Whatever we do first, we need to do it extremely well. India brings a lot of challenges – quality batting line-up, but with the ball we just need to be clear about the options on how to shut these guys down and obviously give them a bigger chase as possible, but it’s going to be a good challenge. Our first game in Dubai, but the wicket looks pretty good there. Yeah, really look forward to taking them on. It’s a hard one to understand how much dew is going to come in. But, from the one game we’ve experienced so far [in Sharjah], there hasn’t been too much of it. The overhead conditions have cooled down a lot nicely, so yeah just got to take your time and make sure you got a good grip on the ball and try to be as accurate as you can,” said Boult.

“Both sides are stacked with quality players”

New Zealand have won seven of their ten World Cup matches against India. Boult however denied that the former have an edge over their upcoming opponents in the lead-up to Sunday’s clash.

“I wouldn’t say we have an extra edge. Both sides are stacked with quality players. In terms of our team, we’re definitely excited about the opportunity that lies ahead for us. Few guys have been here in the UAE, playing the IPL, have relationships and have played with a lot of these Indian guys a lot. Here’s hoping we can put it all together tomorrow afternoon and get our ball rolling. Gup is pretty good. He trained fully yesterday and didn’t see too many issues with him. So, he’s definitely a big piece of puzzle for us at the top of the innings. So, from what I know, he’s good to go,” concluded the pacer.