Shaheen Shah Afridi is one of the world’s best pacers at present. The 22-year-old won the ICC Player of the Year award in 2021 for his superb show with the ball but missed the majority of the second half of 2022 due to a knee injury. The left-arm pacer, however, played in the T20 World Cup that took place in Australia last year but was out of action for three months before and after that event. The Pakistani pace bowling spearhead made his latest comeback to competitive cricket with the ongoing edition of the Pakistan Super League last month. In PSL 2023, he is leading the defending champion Lahore Qalandars, and this year in Pakistan’s premier Twenty20 event, he has not just impressed with his bowling but with his batting as well.
During the Qalandars league match against Babar Azam’s Peshawar Zalmi side on March 7 at the Pindi Club Ground in Rawalpindi, Shaheen promoted himself to bat at No. 6 in the 208-run chase after picking four wickets for 31 runs earlier in the game. In that match, Shaheen presented a great example of his batting and, with the help of five sixes and three fours, scored 52 runs off 36 balls. Even though he was unable to help his side with the game, he did catch everyone’s attention with his fearless batting approach.
And taking note of it, former Pakistani pacer Mohammed Amir has now expressed his belief in Afridi’s potential to become an all-rounder and play many match-winning knocks for the Men in Green in the matches to come. According to him, if Afridi continues to work on his batting, he can become an all-rounder like Hardik Pandya.
“If he keeps working on this and believes that he can improve his batting, then definitely. Practice makes you perfect. I saw that he can hit long sixes and scored a fifty as well,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
He asked the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to utilise Shaheen’s ability to smack the ball in the upcoming edition of the ODI World Cup.
“These days, cricket has become so fast that you have to make your decisions within seconds,” he said.
“Textbook cricket has become redundant now. And, these days, batters’ gameplans are so versatile that you can use different batters in different situations. So yes, Pakistan should consider this,” Amir added
