Shaheen Afridi doesn’t look match-ready, the team management has rushed him: Wasim Jaffer

The speedster Shaheen Shah Afridi took the cricketing world by storm with his fiery spell against India in the T20 World Cup 2021. Ever since that, he has caused havoc in every format of the game but just as the green brigade was getting ready for the eighth edition of the T20 World Cup, an injury to Shaheen changed all their plans for the mega tournament.

The 22-year-old suffered a knee injury and was ruled out of the Asia Cup and didn’t play a single international match leading up to the tournament. Thus, when it comes to match fitness, the former India international believes that Shaheen never looked in great shape. He also said that the Pakistan team management rushed to bring in the cricketer for the mega tournament and that shouldn’t have been the case.

“Shaheen Shah Afridi doesn’t look match-ready to me. Even though he played a few games, I think they rushed him and played him. I don’t think we have seen the kind of pace we relate to Shaheen Shah Afridi. He is bowling mid-30s (mid 130 kmph) at his best and obviously, he came out of surgery, so I don’t think he is at his best. I think probably Pakistan is missing a trick by playing him just for the sake of him Shaheen Shah Afridi,” said Jaffer on BatBricks7 presents Run Ki Runneeti show on CricTracker.

Afridi picks three to derail South Africa’s momentum and keeps Pakistan alive in T20 World Cup

After losing to India and Zimbabwe in their first two matches of the season, the Pakistan team have finally found their mojo as they defeated the Netherlands and South Africa to remain alive in the competition. After a blistering start with the bat, the Men in Green put 185 on board after 20 overs. Their middle order which was heavily criticised coming up to the tournament was phenomenal in the match as both Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed registered a much-needed half-century.

On the other hand, their bowling once again stepped up in a big match and delivered well. Shaheen picked up three wickets and gave away just 14 runs in his three overs. Shadab Khan too was brilliant as the spinner clinched the wickets of Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram. Overall, it was an all-round performance for the Pakistan team which will boost their morale before their final Super 12 match against Bangladesh.

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