AB de Villiers: “They need this guy in form, we know what he’s capable of”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
AB de Villiers, the former South Africa batsman, said Pakistan need left-arm seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi in form as he is their frontline bowler.
Afridi has looked in pretty good form lately, apart from one or two games where he has been a little bit inconsistent.
However, with the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup right around the corner, De Villiers hopes to see the 23-year-old firing on all cylinders and taking plenty of wickets.
“They need this guy in form, we know what he’s capable of,” he said in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Afridi recently took six wickets in two Test matches against Sri Lanka at an average of 37.33.
He followed it up with six wickets in three ODIs against Afghanistan at an average of 16.33.
Most recently, he was in action in the Asia Cup and snapped up 10 wickets in five matches at an average of 23.50.
Pakistan kickstarted the tournament with a 238-run win over Nepal before sharing one point apiece with India as their match was rained off.
Having booked their spot in the Super Fours, the men in green cruised to a seven-wicket win over Bangladesh.
However, everything went wrong from here as India crushed them by 228 runs.
Pakistan still had an opportunity to make it to the Asia Cup final, but blew it when they lost to Sri Lanka by two wickets via the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) method.
The men in green will now play in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India, which will begin on October 5.
Pakistan’s opening match will be against the Netherlands on October 6 in Hyderabad.
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