CHANDIGARH: Last April-May, Arshdeep Singh was trending every time he had the white kookaburra in his hands. At the Indian Premier League (IPL), a grand stage where even the best in the world can wilt under pressure, the 23-year-old left-arm seamer was delivering yorkers for fun. Such was his precision considered the most difficult art to practice in the game that his economy rate in the end overs was better than that of even Jasprit Bumrah.
It was this outstanding ability that made Punjab Kings to retain him ahead of the last player auctions. And the possibility of pairing up with Bumrah at the end overs, where they could be terrorising batters at the T20 World Cup, was the reason why India picked him for the Asia Cup. Yet all it took was one dropped catch–that of Asif Ali in the 17th over of Pakistan’s chase against India at Dubai–for Arshdeep to face abuses on social media.
From being called a Khalistani terrorist (on his Wikipedia page as well) to be accused of single-handedly costing India the win, Arshdeep was subjected to abuse by trolls. During last year’s T20 World Cup, pacer Mohammed Shami faced a similar attack on social media, which led to Virat Kohli coming down heavily on the trolls. This time too there is an outpouring of support for Arshdeep with many former cricketers including Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Abhinav Mukund and Aakash Chopra tweeting in his support.
Punjab’s minister for sports and youth affairs Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer threw his weight behind Arshdeep and spoke to his mother in Dubai. Former Punjab CM Capt. Amarinder Singh wrote on his Facebook page, “It’s unfortunate that Arshdeep Singh is being mocked this much for only dropping one catch...”