Ahead of the Asia Cup 2023 clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan, the hype is building outside the stadium. The players, these days, from both the sides take the matches not as seriously as the fans but it is also true that the desire to do well against each other remains in the hearts of the cricketers. Over the years, we have seen many rivalries between the players of two teams. Javed Miandad vs Sunil Gavaskar, Imran Khan vs Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar vs Shoaib Akhtar and Virat Kohli vs Pakistani bowlers. Thee is a new player rivalry brewing and could be visible when the two teams take each other on in Asia Cup clash.
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This player battle will be between India' emerging batting star Shubman Gill and Pakistan's ace pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi. This is the first time that Shubman will be playing an international vs Pakistan. Not many know that Gill has already faced Shaheen earlier. That was in 2018 during the ICC U19 World Cup in New Zealand.
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It was a semi-final match and Gill had just scored a brilliant 86 vs Bangladesh. Gill was welcomed by a fiery bouncer by a Pakistani pacer. Soon, Shaheen and the other pacer Muhammad Musa sledged Shubman. The Indian Express reported that Shubman did not like what was said. "The bowler and his bowling partner came to me and said ‘hum Bangladesh ke bowlers nahi hai (We are not Bangladesh’s bowlers).I said nothing," said Gill.
The Pakistani bowlers wanted to make a point that they were not Bangladesh bowlers against whom scoring was easy. Shubman did not lose his cool right then and kept his calm. But he needed to give reply through his bat. In the next over, he pulled one of the fast bowlers and then while crossing 22 yards for a run told Shaheen and Musa, "I am not a Pakistani batter either."
More han five years after that game, Shaheen and Shubman will be up against each other. There is a big likelihood that Shubman could be facing the first ball of the match/innings bowled by Shaheen and both of them will surely have that heated exchange, from 5 years ago, in their minds. Both have come a long way from those U19 days. Shaheen has become Pakistan's best pacer. Shubman is a rising batting star. They are both 23 and future of Pakistan cricket. Expect a lot of Shaheen vs Shubman clashes to take place in the times to come.
