Brad Hogg: “Pakistan with their pace attack has a slight advantage, especially with left arm Shaheen Afridi. He is a quality bowler”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Australia spinner Brad Hogg said Pakistan left-arm seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi is a “quality bowler” with a distinct advantage.
Revealing what it is, he pointed to Afridi’s ability to swing the ball into right-handed batsmen, which makes it difficult for them to play him.
In fact, Afridi has taken plenty of wickets utilising his swing, which is one of the many reasons why he is seen as an elite fast bowler.
“Pakistan with their pace attack has a slight advantage, especially with left arm Shaheen Afridi. He is a quality bowler. When you have a left-arm fast bowler who swings the ball with pace and gets them to come in for the right-handers it does make it difficult,” Hogg said on Backstage with Boria as quoted by NDTV.
Afridi is currently representing Pakistan in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup and has taken 16 wickets in seven matches, which includes a five-wicket haul against Australia, at an average of 19.93.
Despite the 23-year-old’s excellent performances, Pakistan are not in a great position as they won their first two games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before losing four in a row to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
The men in green stopped their losing streak with a seven-wicket win over Bangladesh and thus kept themselves in the race to capture a spot in the World Cup semi-finals.
Pakistan will be back in action on November 4 when they take on New Zealand in Bengaluru.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup:Â Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Hasan Ali