Harsha Bhogle: “It’s not that Shaheen may become a very good captain for all that you know but he is very injury prone and has a lot of bowling to do”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Renowned cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle admitted he is worried about left-arm seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi being appointed Pakistan T20I captain as he is “very injury prone.”
Afridi suffered back-to-back knee injuries in 2022 that kept him out of action for a lengthy period of time.
With the 23-year-old having replaced Babar Azam as captain, Bhogle pointed out that he will have to take care of his fitness as he still has “a lot of bowling to do.”
“It’s not that Shaheen may become a very good captain for all that you know but he is very injury prone and has a lot of bowling to do,” he was quoted as saying by Geo Super.
Azam resigned as captain in all three formats following the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, where he accumulated 320 runs in nine matches, which included four fifties, at an average of 40.
Afridi, meanwhile, took 18 wickets in nine games, which included a five-wicket haul against champions Australia, at an average of 26.72.
Pakistan kicked off their campaign with successive wins over the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before stumbling against India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite stopping their four-game skid with back-to-back victories over Bangladesh and New Zealand, they were unable to progress to the semi-finals.
To add insult to injury, the men in green lost their final group stage match against England by 93 runs.
Azam and Afridi will now feature in Pakistan’s three-match Test series against Australia, which begins on December 14 in Perth.
Pakistan Squad for Australia Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi
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