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For all his verbal bluster and renaissance, Afridi indeed, had endured a torrid last three years, precisely since he limped off in the final of the 2022 World Cup. (PTI)
There is nothing like an angry fast bowler. Shaheen Shah Afridi was an angry fast bowler during the press conference after the last PSL final. He was the victorious captain, yet he was angered by the constant pestering about his upturn in form. When a journalist asked him about it, he replied, palpably irritated: “Ramiz Raja too asked me at the toss about my form, and I told him the same thing: I am still the same Shaheen; I have neither changed nor will I.” A sharp one-liner, like the swipe of a knife, was to come: “You need to have eyes to see it but.”
For all his verbal bluster and renaissance, Afridi indeed, had endured a torrid last three years, precisely since he limped off in the final of the 2022 World Cup. He was flickered sporadically, offered fleeting signs of reclaiming his destructible peak. But he was never the same–the leap lost its zing, the action lost its smoothness and energy, the snap of the wrists was forced, the ball lost its swerve and nip. It was not Afridi. It was an imposter. A lookalike. It occurs to bowlers returning from injuries. Self-doubts creep in. Many fast bowlers, for all their outward alpha-male vibes, have been historically fragile in the mind. They need a bit of pampering, love and a sense of importance. Afridi, perceptibly, was feeling unloved, unappreciated and unwanted. It seemed as though he no longer loved his craft, and craft no longer loved him back.
Performances faltered. He was dropped from Tests (has not played one in a year), ODIs after a horrible Champions Trophy in 2023 (was in wilderness for a year) and was not always an automatic pick in the T20Is. Former cricketers, some legends, laid bare his flaws. Wasim Akram would say: “He hasn’t learned how to bowl outswing on a consistent basis. He has only two types of deliveries. Either he will bowl a yorker or keep straight. The world knows about his bowling now, and the batters are prepared to take on him. He doesn’t know how to take the ball away from the batter.”
The great Pakistan bowling hope of this era was now a fallen star. He was once the prototype of modern fast bowler–can clock 150kph, is six feet six inches tall, coaxes wicked late swing with the snap of his wrists, has a fiendish yorker and helmet-crashing bouncer. But he is not the lone fast bowler that has slipped to anonymity through the clumsy palms of Pakistan cricket.
The constant leadership change and the collective downturn in team’s form didn’t aid his reinvention bid either. Some reports in Pakistan claim that he was discontent that he was not appointed the captain despite being the leading voice in the team.
Then happened the PSL 2025. He was a bowler reborn. The first half was forgettable, the second spirit-lifting as he reclaimed his old fury and snared 10 wickets in four games. He credited hard work, but there was something more intangible at play. A refuelling of ambition, a rekindling of love, or a re-injection of self-belief. Someone who proudly talks about his warrior spirit, toughened by the unrest in his village, Landi Kotal, that shares a border with Afghanistan, he is not made of flaky stuff to pack up his international career and find contentment in franchise leagues.
Whatever spurred him, he has rolled the old clock back in the five T20I outings since the PSL triumph. In the league game against Afghanistan, he chiselled two evil in-swingers to blast the stumps of opener Ibrahim Zadran and Mujeeb Ur Rehman down the order. The rediscovered his pace–as well as the joy of bowling–and sting to become Pakistan talisman for the Asia Cup. It did not escape the eyes of Akram. “He is definitely back into his rhythm. I saw him just recently. He was sprinting in every ball and was bowling at 140ks,” he said recently.
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The bowling coach Ashley Noffke concurred: “He’s definitely on his way back and his confidence is growing. There’s a bit of technique, mindset and a good release point involved, all of which are crucial for bowlers presenting their best.”
Pakistan needs him as much as he needs Pakistan. All victorious Pakistan teams had a great pacer. Suddenly they develop a square light around the head, suddenly all their vulnerabilities melt. The 1992 World Cup team was not an unconquerable team, but it had a charismatic captain, Imran Khan, and a wondrous left-arm seam bowling whizz-kid, Akram. In the Asia Cup, Pakistan’s best hopes lie with Afridi, or precisely in the devious snap of his wrists. It’s a happy and familiar place for him too. It’s here where he orchestrated three of his favourites deliveries to eject KL Rahul (special one, he later said), Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in conceptualising Pakistan first-ever victory against arch-rivals India in a World Cup match.
It’s the day he fell loved too. He told The Telegraph after the game: “I was really excited because the whole crowd is cheering Afridi, Afridi. I love that honestly, because of the India Pakistan game and [a] full, packed ground. The way the crowd was saying Afridi Afridi when I started my run-up… I feel really good, energetic and then the pace comes automatically.” He would hope Dubai would again take him closer to the peaks that he had once scaled. And soothe some of his accumulated angst.
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