Wasim Akram: “He has been bowling well. Obviously, his confidence will be a bit low but he is a wicket-taking bowler”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary Pakistan left-arm pace bowler Wasim Akram acknowledged that pace spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi is slightly low on confidence, but backed him to get back to his best as he is a “wicket-taking bowler.”
Afridi, who was recently named Pakistan’s T20I captain, had not been taking wickets consistently in the lead-up to the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
He started off slow in the tournament as well, but began heating up as he played more matches.
Ultimately, he finished with 18 wickets in nine games, which included a five-wicket haul against Australia, at an average of 26.72.
“He has been bowling well. Obviously, his confidence will be a bit low but he is a wicket-taking bowler,” Wasim was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Pakistan won their first two matches against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before losing their next four against India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Despite fight back to beat Bangladesh and New Zealand, the men in green were unable to advance to the semi-finals.
Pakistan ended their World Cup campaign on a low as they lost their final group stage game against England by 93 runs.
Afridi will now play in Pakistan’s 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