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Shaheen Afridi has been in the headlines ever since former Pakistan captain Babar Azam stepped down from the role in all formats after a group stage exit in the 2023 World Cup.
While Afridi has been around for quite a while now, it’s easy to forget that he’s still young. At 23 years of age, the left-arm speedster already has two Pakistan Super League (PSL) titles with Lahore Qalandars as captain.
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Those feats prompted the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to entrust the captaincy role in T20 internationals to Afridi. Pakistan were, however, swat aside 4-1 by New Zealand in Afridi’s debut T20I series as captain.
His dismal bowling performances in the three Tests against Australia, followed by the 4-1 loss to the Kiwis, has somewhat dented the confidence of Afridi the captain.
Qalandars, the double defending champions of PSL, succumbed to six straight defeats initially. After 10 games, at the end of the league phase, the Qalandars have only one win to their name and will finish PSL 2024 in bottom place.
MORE: List of top scorers and wicket-takers in PSL 2024
Shaheen Afridi fuels feud with Wasim Akram after a ‘shush’ celebration
Batting first, Afridi decided to promote himself at No. 5, ahead of big-hitters Sikandar Raza and David Wiese.
The captain scored took just 28 balls to reach his fifty and smashed a six to bring up the milestone. To celebrate it, Afridi celebrated by placing the finger on his lips, as if to send a “shut up” message to his naysayers. However, it is perhaps possible that it might have been aimed at former Pakistan bowler Wasim Akram.
Belting them out of the park! 💪
5️⃣0️⃣ 🆙 for skipper Shaheen ©️#HBLPSL9 | #KhulKeKhel | #QGvLQ pic.twitter.com/grsh4f1VSh
— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) March 10, 2024
A day ahead of Lahore Qalandars’ match against Quetta Gladiators, Akram spoke about Afridi and mentioned that he wasn’t an all-rounder and that he shouldn’t be promoting himself up the order.
Shaheen needs to be told that he hasn’t become an all-rounder yet. You have world-class hitters in your team, whose job is to come and score runs in the last three overs – Wiese and Raza. Shaheen scored 1 off 3, while Raza scored 22 off 16 & Wiese 24 off 9. They took the score to 177. It’s not mandatory that if you are captain you have to come out to bat. Observe the situation and whether there are better players and hitters in the dugout. If Shaheen had done that maybe they would have made 190.
Afridi’s exploits with the bat were not enough in the end as, ironically, Afridi was hit for a six on the final ball of Gladiators’ final over to qualify for the playoffs.
Wasim Akram hits back at Shaheen Afridi
After Lahore Qalandars’ loss to Quetta Gladiators, Akram hit back at Afridi for promoting himself up the order yet again. Speaking on a show called The Pavilion, Akram criticised his bowling at the death.
Shaheen is a very experienced bowler. He is the captain of Pakistan team as well. He is playing international cricket for five years now.
He wanted to bowl a length ball but instead he should have bowled full. Edge lag ke chauka jaaye (It doesn’t matter if he would have conceded a boundary through edge) not a problem. I think it again is a learning curve for Shaheen. I think in this PSL, he is not able to bowl well in the death overs.
Even with the new ball, we all were watching it together, he was bowling half volleys. He needs to understand that batsmen now have understood that the first two balls from Shaheen will be yorkers. In the death he will either bowl slower cutter or will on the stumps around the wicket. Batsmen are prepared for it now.
In 16 to 20 overs, his economy rate is 11. He has conceded 148 runs in 13 overs that he has bowled.
As a bowler he must be looking at this thing about how can he improve. It’s high time now that he must learn how to bowl the back of the hand slower ball. He’s got two wickets but he is not been able to do the job a a bowler.
Akram re-emphasized on the fact that the Qalandars would have benefitted more had players like Raza and Wiese faced more balls.
Shaheen got runs. But their big two hitters Sikandar Raza (got five balls) and David Wiese didn’t get a chance.
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