There is another muscle he needs to develop, the brain muscle: Aamir Sohail takes a cheeky jibe at Naseem Shah
Former Pakan cricketer Aamir Sohail slammed fast-bowler Naseem Shah during the ongoing first Test between Sri Lanka and Pakan at the Galle international stadium and said that the youngster should focus on developing his batting muscle and brain muscle.
This was after fellow commentator Ramiz Raja said on air, “Naseem has no problem developing the batting muscle.”
Responding to it, Sohail said, “There is another muscle he needs to develop, the brain muscle. He will become a better cricketer and bowler.”
Naseem Shah’s gritty 78-ball 6-run knock helped double-centurion Saud Shakeel extend Pakan’s first-innings lead stitching a 94-run partnership for the ninth wicket.
Shakeel was stranded on an unbeaten 208, his second century in two tests, when Pakan was all out after tea.
In six tests since his debut in December, he has scored a double hundred, a hundred and five half-centuries. He has a Bradmanesque average of 98.5. Shakeel was the mainstay of Pakan’s innings stitching valuable partnerships with the lower middle order and the tail after the top order collapsed.
At 101-5, a first-innings lead was the last thing on Pakan’s mind, but Shakeel added 177 runs with Agha Salman to rescue his side. The partnership was a record for Pakan for the sixth wicket against Sri Lanka, improving on the 173-run stand between Sarfaraz Ahmed and Asad Shafiq in Dubai in 2017.
When the last man, Abrar Ahmed, was dismissed for 10 with a total of 461, Shakeel was unbeaten after a marathon innings lasting for 506 minutes, in which he faced 361 balls and hit 19 boundaries.
Only two overseas players — West Indies’ Chris Gayle (333) and England’s Joe Root (228) — have higher scores in Galle than Shakeel.