Matthew Hayden: “Once it starts to reverse swing, boy he’s hard to handle”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan batting consultant and mentor Matthew Hayden said left-arm seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi is “hard to handle” when he gets the ball to reverse swing.
Afridi is Pakistan’s pace spearhead in all three formats and the team’s go-to option when they are in need of wickets.
With the 22-year-old capable of bowling at speeds of 150 kph, which makes him even more lethal, Hayden admitted that he has all the components to break through any batsman’s defences.
“Once it starts to reverse swing, boy he’s hard to handle,” the iconic Australia big-hitting opener was quoted as saying by Cricwick.
Afridi has been out of action for the past couple of months as he suffered a knee injury in the 2022 T20 World Cup final.
It resulted in him missing the three-Test series against England, which Pakistan lost 3-0, the two-Test series against New Zealand, which ended as a 0-0 draw, and the three-match ODI series against the Black Caps, which Pakistan lost 2-1.
It remains to be seen when Afridi will be fully fit again, but there has been talk about him returning for the Pakistan Super League (PSL), where he will captain the Lahore Qalandars.
PSL 8 is set to be played from February 13 to March 19, with Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi and Quetta being the host cities.
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