Aakash Chopra: “He picked up wickets with the new ball and the way he dismissed Mahmudullah with the old ball, I thought that was beautiful. He came around the stumps and took the ball away. It reminded me slightly of Wasim Akram”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former India batsman Aakash Chopra said Pakistan left-arm seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi reminds him of Wasim Akram as he can extract life from and take wickets with the new and old ball.
Afridi is renowned for being one of the best new ball bowlers in the world, while he is also a danger later on in the match as he can swing the ball and make life difficult for the opposition batsmen.
Chopra noted that this was evident during Pakistan’s match against Bangladesh in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, where the 23-year-old finished with figures of 3-23 off nine overs.
“He picked up wickets with the new ball and the way he dismissed Mahmudullah with the old ball, I thought that was beautiful. He came around the stumps and took the ball away. It reminded me slightly of Wasim Akram,” he said on his YouTube channel as quoted by Geo Super.
Afridi ended up taking 18 wickets in nine World Cup games, which included a five-for against champions Australia, at an average of 26.72.
Pakistan kicked off their campaign with back-to-back wins over the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before faltering against India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Even though they fought back to beat Bangladesh and New Zealand, they could not qualify for the semi-finals.
To add insult to injury, the men in green lost their last group stage match against England by 93 runs.
Afridi, who was recently appointed T20I captain, will now represent Pakistan in their three-match Test series against Australia, which starts 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