There's no need to take six singles when you can hit a six: Mohammad Shahzad

Mohammad Shahzad is one of the entertaining cricketers in the Afghanistan team and is known for his aggressive batting. He is one of the openers of the team and likes to tonk the ball a long way in the limited overs format. Many people criticise him for his fitness which is necessary to run between the wickets. However, Shahzad feels there’s no need to take the singles in an over when he can hit sixes and save the energy.

He is currently involved in the ongoing historic Test match in which his team is on the brink of a huge loss. Shahzad got the own taste of his saying in the first innings as he was run-out while taking a quick single. His fitness came in his way as the acrobatics from Hardik Pandya caught him short of the crease with the direct hit. Even in the second innings, he couldn’t do much and was scaled by Umesh Yadav on 13.

Save the energy

In a candid interview to ESPN Cricinfo, Mohammad Shahzad opened up on his art of hitting sixes and felt that smashing maximums saves the energy and he can play the other balls of the over easily instead of taking singles. “The thing is, if you take six singles in an over, you are expending your effort and still getting only 6 runs. It’s just better to hit six easy runs and save your energy,” he said.

Over the years, many bowlers have come up with different actions which has bamboozled the batsmen as they struggle to pick up the ball. Shahzad is no different to it as he hates to face the bowlers with weird actions.

“I like all bowlers, except guys like Lasith Malinga who have weird actions. You just can’t pick them which is infuriating. Sometimes I tell such bowlers to meet me outside the Stadium after the game,” he candidly added while also mentioning that he copies the style of MS Dhoni while donning the wicketkeeping gloves. Interestingly, he is playing as a specialist batsman in the ongoing Test match and Afsar Zazai has taken up the duty behind the wickets.

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