‘Shubman Bhai, Rishabh Bhai Told Me…’: Centurion Musheer Khan Reveals How Seniors Helped Him Tackle Kuldeep Yadav

Musheer Khan, who made a name for himself at the ICC Under-19 World Cup earlier this year, smashed an unbeaten 105 on Day One of the Duleep Trophy in India B’s first-round match against India A at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday.

Musheer’s unbeaten knock of 105 was laced with ten fours and two sixes in an outstanding display of gritty batting combined with an unflinching resolve to take India B from 94/7 to 202/7 in 79 overs at the end of the day’s play.

Musheer, after the end of day’s play, revealed that he centred his batting strategy around playing close to the body to nullify the pronounced movement of the ball in overcast conditions.

“I wanted to play as many balls as possible without thinking too much about runs. I wanted to bat the whole day, and I was taking it session by session. The ball was swinging and cutting when I came to bat,” Musheer told reporters at the post-day press meet.

“So, I was trying to play the ball as close to my body as possible, and was looking to avoid those risky shots. I knew runs would eventually come,” he added.

Apart from bringing up his maiden Duleep Trophy century in 205 balls, Musheer also stitched an unbroken 108-run stand with Navdeep Saini (29 not out) for the eighth wicket.

“When wickets were falling at the other end, I told myself to play intelligently and look for a partnership. Then Saini bhai gave me a lot of confidence saying he will play whether it is two balls or six balls in an over, and just keep faith in him.

“He was also able to match my thinking and approach while batting. But generally, I was trying to defend the first three or four balls and then take a single,” he elaborated.

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Another salient feature of his batting was the way he handled Kuldeep Yadav as five of his 10 fours came off the left-arm wrist spinner, including two successive biffs down the V.

Musheer said conversations with senior batters in his side like Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant helped him prepare against Kuldeep.

“This is the second time I am playing Kuldeep bhai. We have some experienced players in our side like Shubman bhai and Rishabh bhai who told me which of Kuldeep bhai’s balls will be effective and off which ones I can score runs. But once I got set, batting became easy on this wicket,” said Musheer.

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The 19-year-old Mumbaikar also termed the opportunity to play in Duleep Trophy as a fine learning experience.

“This is a good learning experience for me as there are a lot of senior players in my team and in opposition.

“I am observing the way they think, their confidence and how they prepare for a practice session and a match,” he added.

(With inputs from Agencies)