Mohammad Amir reveals the reason behind Shaheen Afridi’s poor performance in the 20-20 World Cup 2022
Shaheen Afridi has had a World Cup to forget as he has gone wicketless in both the matches that he has played for Pakistan so far. He went for 36 runs in his four overs in the game against India and was unsuccessful in the Zimbabwe game as well, conceding 29 runs off his four overs.
Now, former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir has come to the defence of Afridi, saying that he is not at fault and the ones who played him at the 20-20 World Cup are to blame because his current situation.
Notably, Shaheen Afridi was out for three months with a knee injury. He had his first taste of competitive cricket since July when he played a couple of practice games in the build-up to the 20-20 World Cup. He did not look like his usual menacing self in the two games that he played.
“You say our bowling is world-class. But apart from Haris (Rauf) and Shadab (Khan), no one is bowling particularly well. Shaheen has just come back from injury. We cannot blame him, we should blame the ones who played him. Shaheen is not forcing them to play him at gunpoint,” Amir said during a discussion with Salim Malik and Wahab Riaz on 24 News HD after Pakistan’s one-run loss to Zimbabwe in Perth on Thursday.
Amir went on to say that Pakistan expected too much from a bowler who had just recovered from a knee injury.
“People were saying on social media that Shaheen is back when he was picked, but I’d said even then that you should not expect him to blow teams away,” Amir said.
A bowler falls behind if he does not bowl normally for even a week, and Shaheen is coming back from a knee injury on top of that. It is the most cruel injury for a pacer, it can be career threatening, you ask Brett Lee, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir.”
Wahab Riaz also shared his views on the matter and said, “It does not appear that Shaheen is fit, as he has always been a match-winner for Pakistan in the past.”
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