Abdul Razzaq: “He needs to bring variations in his bowling with the old ball”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq believes left-arm pace bowler and new T20I captain Shaheen Shah Afridi needs to add some variations to his arsenal if he wants to have more of an impact with the old ball.
Afridi is known for being one of the best new ball bowlers in the sport as he utilises his pace, swing and bounce to make early breakthroughs.
However, Razzaq wants to see the 23-year-old get wickets with the old ball as well and thus advised him to try and mix things up in order to play mind games with the opposition batsmen.
“He needs to bring variations in his bowling with the old ball,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Afridi recently represented Pakistan in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup and took 18 wickets in nine matches, which included a five-for against Australia, at an average of 26.72.
The men in green won their first two games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before losing four in a row to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite this, they saved themselves from elimination and stayed in contention to earn a spot in the semi-final with victories over Bangladesh and New Zealand.
However, they failed to progress to the final four and ended up losing their last group stage game against England by 93 runs.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup: 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