Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan applauded Australia’s Tim David for his stunning half-century in the third T20I of the five-match series. The match was played on Sunday, November 2, at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart as well.
Put in to bat, Australia posted 186/6 in their 20 overs, with Tim David scoring a brilliant 74 off 38 balls said as well.
Irfan Pathan lauded him in a YouTube video, saying, “Look, the way Tim David batted, I think right now if you talk about the top five six-hitters in the world, his name will definitely be included. There is no doubt about that. He even hit Varun for two consecutive sixes when Varun was changing his angle and wickets were also falling, but it didn’t affect him at all.”
“However, the Indian team missed one thing against him, as a bowler, you first need to see where he is standing. Tim David was standing outside the leg stump, and whenever he stands outside leg stump, it means that his off stump is not actually the off stump, it becomes the width. That’s why, even if you target the middle stump, for him it turns into the off stump, because his bat remains open and he stands slightly toward the leg side, away from the stumps,” he shared.
READ HERE: Shubman Gill Breaks Silence On ODI Futures Of Rohit Sharma And Virat Kohli
In the same video, Irfan Pathan also stated that, considering Tim David’s tendency to bat outside the leg stump, Indian bowlers should target his pads as well.
“So whenever you bowl to him, either target his leg stump or his pads. That will be the right line. Do not give him room. Bowling to him on the stumps, especially the off stump, gives him room, which the Indian bowlers did. If you look at his wagon wheel, around 70 to 80 percent of his runs came on the off side, and there was only one run on the leg side near fine leg,” he stated.
“That means the Indian bowlers neither used enough short balls nor targeted his pads. They gave him complete freedom to open up and play his shots. So it’s very important as a bowling unit to first observe where the batter is standing. Even though it didn’t turn out to be a match-winning innings, this analysis is crucial,” he concluded.
