Shubman Gill vs Shaheen Shah Afridi: A ‘Gen Z’ Indo-Pak rivalry | Cricket News

Shubman Gill hails from a small village near the India-Pakan border, while Shaheen Shah Afridi comes from a remote town in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province close to the Afghanan border. Both fell in love with the game there but had to leave home at a very young age to avail better cricketing facilities. Gill moved to Chandigarh, while Afridi’s family made their base in Peshawar.
It was in village Chak Kherewala in Fazilka drict of Punjab that Gill fell in love with the game as a four-year-old, hitting plastic balls thrown his landlord father down a long corridor. Around the same time far away, a young boy developed a junoon for fast bowling after his elder brother Riaz Afridi played a solitary Test for Pakan.
Gill and Afridi have crossed paths only once on a cricket field. It was in the semifinals of the 2018 U-19 World Cup. Gill, the player of the tournament, scored an unbeaten century in the game, while Afridi had a forgettable day.

In that match, when Gill walked out to bat, he had a tasty verbal altercation in Punjabi with Afridi and fellow pacer Muhammad Musa.
“The first ball I faced was a bouncer. I was late to react, and when the ball hit my handle it went to mid-on. In the previous match against Bangladesh, I had scored 86. 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. In the next over I connected a pull shot with disdain and while crossing to the other end, I told them ‘I am not a Pakani batter either,’” Gill had told this reporter after India’s title triumph back in 2018.

After completing another century, Gill did a Virat Kohli-esque celebration and was warned the then U-19 coach Rahul Dravid. “Not like this young man,” Dravid had said in the dressing room.
During the knock, Gill faced 13 deliveries from Afridi and scored 19 runs. It is the only time till date the duo has come against each other.
Both are 23 and have already experienced a fair share of success and agony in their careers. Afridi was fast-tracked into the Pakan senior team and already has 100 Test wickets to his name, and also led his Pakan Super League (PSL) team Lahore Qalandars to the title.
Gill stamped his class at the Gabba during a successfull 330-run chase to win a Test series on India’s last tour of Australia, and also helped Gujarat Titans to IPL glory in their maiden season. In the past one and half years, he has cemented his place in the Indian team in all three formats.
Cut to the present: if the rain gods permit, on Saturday, Gill and Afridi will be up against each other for the first time in their senior careers.
Familiar failing
Be it Wasim Akram, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Amir, or Afridi now, Pakani left-arm pacers have always troubled India’s top order.
A couple of years ago in Dubai, Pakan ended their winless streak against their arch rivals in World Cups, thrashing India 10 wickets. And it was Afridi who set the tone. Rohit Sharma received an unplayable delivery first up. KL Rahul was done in another in-ducker, the ball shaping in and going through the gate. It was Afridi’s early assault that forced India on the backfoot.
Come Sunday, the left-arm pacer will again test the Indian openers. This time he will have his old nemesis Gill in his sights.

The young Indian star, despite his rich vein of form, has struggled against incoming deliveries, even while playing at home against the likes of Kagiso Rabada, James Anderson and Kyle Jamison, who have dismissed him with nip-backers across formats. Quite often, there has been a pattern in these dismissals where Gill has got stuck with his trigger movement and been late in leaning forward.
“I found he was making too much trigger movement sideways. It was also a bit quick. What could result from it is that you will have real good days and real bad days. On some days, the trigger movement will be in sync or bowling will be such that it will help you get runs. And on certain days, the movements will be disconnected with what is being required,” former India opener WV Raman had told this newspaper recently.
Gill’s issues with deliveries that cut back in sharply continue to dog him and this is where Afridi can make life difficult for him.
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However, the India-Pakan games aren’t just about the players’ skills as temperament also plays a significant factor in the outcome. As the cliche goes: ‘It’s all about handling pressure in an India-Pakan match.’
Both Gill and Afridi have it in them to deal with the occasion, it’s only about who comes out on top.
Their match-up is not only expected to play a major role in the course of the match in Pallekele, or in Ahmedabad during the World Cup, but also over the next decade in the form of a new Gen Z rivalry, whenever the two sides clash at big tournaments.