Shaheen Afridi, the newly discovered Pakistani talent, is making all the buzz for his adaptability in leading the pace attack of his nation across all formats. But as is seen with fast bowlers, Shaheen is also prone to injuries considering the workload he has been handling in all these years.
Earlier, former Pakistan cricketer Aquib Javed had compared the left-arm speedster to India’s Jaspreet Bumrah and opined that Shaheen is better than his Indian counterpart with the new ball.
However, Javed had added that if the labour input of the 21-year-old is not managed, then the youngster might face fitness issues in future.
Chief selector Mohammed Wasim had also asked Shaheen to rest during the home series against South Africa, but the Lahore-Qalandar player had other plans.
Recently, the left-arm pacer Junaid Khan revealed that his countryman is afraid of losing his place in the national team when rested.
“Shaheen definitely needs rest. The management needs to make sure he doesn’t bowl a lot during the net sessions. Shaheen probably doesn’t want to rest himself because he might have fear of losing his place to a youngster, who might perform in his place. He must be thinking they might drop him from one format if he doesn’t perform in few matches,” Junaid told Cricket Pakistan.
Validating Shaheen’s contingency, the 31-year-old further added that Pakistan Cricket rarely gives another chance to any player. A newcomer with his few decent performances can easily occupy the spot of a veteran, who had once performed well for the side.
“In our culture, even if a player performs for six years and then doesn’t do well in two games, he is replaced by a new player who has done well in only few games. Everyone forgets that player’s performances for last six years and instead prefers younger talent. So our players are insecure about losing their place,” he added.
Meanwhile, Shaheen brought laurels to his country when he picked four wickets in the first innings of the inaugural Test match of the Pakistan tour of Zimbabwe, helping the visitors in winning the game by an innings and 116 runs.
