'He has pace, a big heart to bowl difficult overs' - Gautam Gambhir praises Avesh Khan

Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir has praised Avesh Khan for his performance against South Africa in the first T20I match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. India lost the match by a big margin of seven wickets despite scoring 211 runs while batting first. The bowlers struggled to control their economy rate and managed to get only three wickets.

Meanwhile, the 25-year-old Avesh gave away 15 runs in his first over but made a good comeback, conceding just 20 runs in his next three overs. He failed to take any wicket but was the only Indian bowler to maintain a below nine economy rate. Indian bowlers received a lot of criticism after this defeat as they failed to defend a massive total. However, Avesh’s mentor at Lucknow Super Giants, Gambhir, has praised the pacer for bowling difficult overs (2, 10, 14, 16). He also encouraged him to not only focus on the IPL and aim to make it big at the highest level.

I will want to see Avesh Khan improve further in every match: Gautam Gambhir 

“This bowler has a lot of talent, he has pace, a big heart to bowl the difficult overs. But I will want to see him improve further in every match. He is a young bowler, only the IPL should not be his goal, the T20 World Cup is coming ahead,” Gambhir said on Star Sports.

Avesh has now played three T20Is for India, taking just two wickets at an economy rate of over eight runs per over. Clearly, he is yet to make the best impression. He featured in the first match ahead of uncapped seamers like Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh and needs to perform better as the T20 World Cup is approaching. Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Mohammed Shami are likely to form the pace trio in Australia and there will be fierce competition for the backup seam options. One of them might be another LSG speedster, Mohsin Khan.

The youngster Mohsin impressed everyone with his pace and controlled bowling in his debut IPL season. The left-arm pacer took 14 wickets from just nine matches and maintained an economy rate of 5.96, the best among any pacers in IPL 2022. Gambhir stated that the arrival of Mohsin in his squad pushed Avesh to perform better.

“It is a good thing if one player pushes the other, then you can bring out a better performance from the other player, which you want. Your squad is a good one when every player is pushed, the other player comes and pushes you and Mohsin Khan did that exceptionally well,” Gambhir added.