Matthew Hayden compares Pakistan's Shadab Khan to India's Ravindra Jadeja: Pakistan's star all-rounder Shadab Khan's recent form in limited-overs cricket, especially in T20Is, has been quite remarkable. Apart from being a key wicket-taking leg-spin bowler, Shadab is also an explosive batter and an excellent fielder. Meanwhile, ex-Aussie star Matthew Hayden, who was with Pakistan as mentor for upcoming men's T20 World Cup in Australia, compared Shadab Khan to Ravindra Jadeja and described him as a 3D cricketer. Hayden believes Shadab can be compared to Jadeja as he is also a three-dimensional cricketer.
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"Shadab Khan is a fantastic player. He is an individual of absolute quality. Like Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja), he is a three-dimensional cricketer. He is a dangerous hitter with the bat. He has got the variations with the ball and he is also a wonderful fielder, and just one further point around this - you win World Cups by fielding efforts," Hayden told Star Sports.
Shadab Khan has played 56 ODIs and 92 T20 Internationals for Pakistan so far. In ODIs, Shadab Khan has scored 681 runs at an average of 29 with 73 wickets. In T20 Internationals, the spin all-rounder has so far scored 569 runs and taken 104 wickets.
On the other hand, India spin-batting legend Ravindra Jadeja has so far scored 457 runs in 64 T20 Internationals, taking 51 wickets. Apart from this, Jadeja has 191 wickets and 2526 runs in 174 ODIs. He is yet to score a fifty in T20 Internationals.
Hayden went on to point out the importance of fielding in the World Cup, calling Australia a "dangerous" team.
"They are the little things that you don't see, that make a big difference in tournament cricket. Under pressure, those catches around the boundaries, those specially unique run-outs that happen, they are the things that will never really be statistically noted in the World Cup," he added.