Shahid Afridi's daughter admitted to hospital; makes an exit from LPL 2020

Pakistan’s veteran all-rounder Shahid Afridi has decided to cut short his journey in the 2020 edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL). Afridi was captaining the franchise Galle Gladiators who are placed at the last spot in the points table with 3 losses in 3 games.

Afridi boarded the flight back to Pakistan as he made an official statement via his official Twitter handle to confirm his unavailability for upcoming matches. The all-rounder revealed that he has to leave the tournament in the middle owing to a personal emergency back home. However, he assured that he will be back with the team once the situation settles down.

“Unfortunately I have a personal emergency to attend back home. I will return to join back my team at LPL immediately after the situation is handled. All the best,” Shahid Afridi tweeted.

Unfortunately I have a personal emergency to attend to back home. I will return to join back my team at LPL immediately after the situation is handled. All the best.

— Shahid Afridi (@SAfridiOfficial) December 2, 2020

However, later the official Twitter handle of LPL confirmed that the reason for Shahid Afridi’s hasty exit from the tournament was the health of one of his daughters who has been admitted to hospital. The Galle Gladiators, according to his tweet, is expected to return to the tournament soon and it will now depend on the health of his daughter.

Do you know the reason for @SAfridiOfficial 's return to the country?

His daughter has been admitted to hospital 🏥
We pray for speedy recovery 🙏 #LPL2020 pic.twitter.com/cY15W8jpPq

— Lanka Premier League (@LPLt20official) December 2, 2020

Shahid Afridi unlikely to undergo Quarantine after returning to Sri Lanka

Meanwhile, if Afridi returns back to the island nation to participate in the tournament, he might have to undergo a short quarantine period along with rounds of COVID-19 Test. However, the swashbuckling batsman is unlikely to complete the whole three-day quarantine period as he had already revealed that he had suffered from Covid-19 once and is therefore unlikely to contract it again.

Afridi had originally arrived in Sri Lanka on November 24. However, unlike the other players who were asked to quarantine themselves for mandatory 7 days, Afridi was allowed to take the field on November 27 after a test showed he had antibodies for Covid-19.

This is a massive blow for Galle Gladiators as they are already dealing with a torrid run in LPL 2020. Afridi was a vital cog for Gladiators considering his past records in the white-ball format along with his capability of leading the team from front.

The 40-year-old has 8064 and 1416 international runs in 398 ODIs and 99 T20 Internationals respectively at an average of 23.6 and 17.9. Afridi also boasts of scalping 395 wickets in 398 One Day Internationals along with 98 wickets in 99 T20 Internationals.

As far as his form with willow in LPL 2020 is concerned, he had hammered 58 runs off 23 deliveries against Jaffna Stallions but failed to take his team to the finishing line. Also, in the other two games, he registered a score of 12 and 0 respectively.