The Pakistan batter Sahibzada Farhan had recently spoken about his breakout performance against India, and emphasized on how that innings was a turning point in his career. He revealed that he had the intention of taking on the Indian bowling attack as it was a star studded one. To hit sixes off Jasprit Bumrah in a T20 game is still considered as a huge task by even the best of batters.
"The ones I hit against India in the Asia Cup. People started to recognise my six hitting ability after that”, said Farhan. It was indeed a huge achievement for Farhan as India was by far the most dominant side of the tournament. To stand up tall against India, it required a different kind of courage.
Farhan highlights challenge of India’s bowling depth and how early confidence against Bumrah shaped his innings
"If you look at him, he gave me a tough time in the beginning. He was bowling slower ones, yorkers and bouncers. He swings the ball, bowls outswing and inswing. It's natural that it's very difficult to play him. So you have to find your way. And when you cross that phase, the rest of the bowlers seem easy to you, I think." told Farhan.
Jasprit Bumrah is undoubtedly one of the most skilled bowlers of his generation. Farhan knew that if he could get past Jasprit Bumrah, he could face the other bowlers as well. Bumrah was in the form of his life as he executed his plans perfectly well and batters couldn’t get past him as quickly. Farhan managed to get past Bumrah in his innings and that in itself was an achievement for the batter.
"Speaking about Bumrah, I don't think there was only Bumrah in that (Indian) team. All of them were some of the best bowlers, like Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav. So it's not that there was only Bumrah. But I started with Bumrah. You get confidence as a player when you hit a good player for a six,” said Farhan.
The Indian bowling attack isn’t necessarily reliant on Jasprit Bumrah as they have the likes of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav as well. Axar Patel is more of a drifter of the ball as he manages to beat the batter in the air with the flight of the ball. Kuldeep Yadav is an unorthodox chinaman and to face him also, it’s quite difficult. So when you face the Indian bowling lineup, you know that there is not just one big player, but when you get past one, the others will come at you even harder.
Farhan had managed to score 57 off 38 balls, including 5 fours and 3 sixes, striking at 150. Farhan and Fakhar Zaman were the only batters in that Pakistan batting unit, to get a decent score. Despite the loss of Pakistan in the finals against India, Farhan had received praise for his valiant knock.
