Shaheen Afridi might just be 21-years-old but has already established himself among the best fast bowlers in the world. This fact was certified last week when he was awarded the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy and crowned as the ICC Men’s cricketer of the year for 2021.
Be it T20Is, ODIs, or Test cricket, Afridi has become the leader of the Pakistan pace attack in all three formats. Last year, he was the second-highest wicket-taker in the longest format of the game with 47 scalps and finished behind only Ravichandran Ashwin, who took 54 wickets in the calendar year. The left-arm pacer was one of the most important players in Pakistan’s run to the semi-final of the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup semi-final in the United Arab Emirates.
As his stock continues to rise in the game, Afridi picked three-star Indian batters as his dream hat trick. During EspnCricinfo’s 25 questions, the 21-year-old answered, “Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli,” on being asked about which three players he would want to dismiss to get a hat-trick. In the same interaction, Afridi named Virat Kohli as the ‘most prized wicket’ he has taken in his career.
During India’s clash against Pakistan in the 2021 T20 World Cup, Afridi dismissed all three of Rohit, Rahul, and Virat as the Men in Green scripted a historic victory over their arch-rivals in Dubai. Afridi had sent Rohit back to the dressing room for a duck with a toe-crushing yorker in the first over of the game. Rahul departed in the next over for a score of just 3 as his stumps were dismantled from an unplayable in-swinging delivery.
Later in the 19th over of the innings, he got the wicket of Kohli, who had scored a fantastic half-century and stabilized India’s innings and helped them put a respectable score of 151 on the board. Shaheen forced Kohli to edge a delivery to wicket-keeper Mohammad Rizwan.
Later, Pakistan’s opening partnership compromising of skipper Babar Azam and Rizwan put up an unbeaten 152-run partnership as they registered a 10-wicket over India and registered their first-ever victory over India in either a 50 or 20-over World Cup
