Haroon Rasheed: “Shaheen has been unfit for the last one-and-a-half years, so when a player comes back from injury, he needs more cricket in terms of active cricket, not nets. In nets, you can come and simply bowl. However, match fitness is different”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Haroon Rasheed, the former chief selector, believes pace spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi needs a bigger workload even though he has been “unfit for the last one-and-a-half years.”
Afridi suffered back-to-back knee injuries in 2022, which resulted in him spending months on the sidelines.
This raised questions about whether the 23-year-old was being overworked since he features in all three formats.
However, Rasheed insisted that Afridi should be playing more competitive cricket in order to boost his fitness and overall longevity.
“Shaheen has been unfit for the last one-and-a-half years, so when a player comes back from injury, he needs more cricket in terms of active cricket, not nets. In nets, you can come and simply bowl. However, match fitness is different,” he told Cricket Pakistan.
Afridi has been in good form lately as he took six wickets in two Tests against Sri Lanka at an average of 37.33.
He then proceeded to claim six wickets in three ODIs against Afghanistan at an average of 16.33.
In the Asia Cup, he picked up 10 wickets in five games at an average of 23.50.
Pakistan started well in the tournament as they registered a 238-run win over Nepal before sharing one point apiece with India after their match was rained off.
Going into the Super Four stage, Pakistan defeated Bangladesh by seven wickets prior to suffering their first loss against India, who battered them by 228 runs.
Pakistan had the chance to book their spot in the Asia Cup final, but ended up losing to Sri Lanka by two wickets via the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) method on September 14 in Colombo.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 Asia Cup: Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel, Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Haris (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Shahnawaz Dahani, Zaman Khan.
Travelling reserve: Tayyab Tahir