Ricky Ponting: “He now holds the key for Pakistan”
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Iconic Australia captain Ricky Ponting said left-arm seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi holds the key for Pakistan.
Afridi is only 22 years old, but has already established himself as the pace spearhead in all three formats.
Given the fact that he has a knack for taking early wickets or dismissing batsmen when Pakistan desperately need a breakthrough, he has become one of the few undroppable players in the team.
“He now holds the key for Pakistan,” Ponting, one of the greatest batsmen to play the game, told the ICC as quoted by NDTV.
Afridi is captaining the Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), which marked his comeback to competitive cricket after he suffered a knee injury in the final of the 2022 T20 World Cup.
In the two matches he has played, he has claimed two wickets at an average of 33 and an economy rate of 8.25.
The Qalandars’ next game will be against the Quetta Gladiators on Tuesday.
Lahore Qalandars Squad for PSL 8: Rashid Khan, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, David Wiese, Abdullah Shafique, Kamran Ghulam, Zaman Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Hussain Talat, Sikandar Raza, Liam Dawson, Dilbar Hussain, Mirza Tahir Baig, Ahmed Danlyal, Shawaiz Irfan, Jalat Khan, Ahsan Bhatti, Sam Billings (partial replacement for Rashid Khan), Shane Dadswell (replacement for Harry Brook), Shai Hope (replacement for Kusal Mendis)