Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has claimed that India’s Sachin Tendulkar did fear Shoaib Akhtar, but this was not something surprising as players can panic under pressure situations.
On a news channel, Afridi said that he was a witness of what the fastest bowler in the world had mentioned in his biography Controversially Yours regarding the Indian legend.
Afridi said he used to field in positions closer to the batsmen and could easily see the legs of Tendulkar shivering while facing the Rawalpindi Express during a Test match in Faisalabad, Pakistan.
However, this was just a normal thing according to the veteran Pakistani player. He stated that he did see Tendulkar’s legs shaking while facing Shoaib, but the same happened to him while facing off-spinner Saeed Ajmal during the ICC World Cup 2011. However, this is not a big thing as players can be shaky under pressure.
Ajmal bowled extremely well in the semi-final clash of the mega event and out the master blaster under immense pressure with his variations.
Tendulkar also escaped a close leg-before-wicket (lbw) shout, which appeared to be plumb with naked eye, but was marginally missing the stumps according to the Hawk-Eye.
Apart from making many other controversial revelations, Shoaib also blamed Afridi for not playing him against India in the World Cup on purpose. He believed that the flamboyant all-rounder wanted to save his captaincy by not selecting him in the playing eleven.
However, Afridi stated that these allegations were baseless. He questioned that how could that have cost him captaincy?
He further added that Shoaib should reconsider what he said, as Afridi was the one who supported him when he was out of the team.
Shoaib made Sachin shiver
