Ahmed Shehzad: “You dropped him, that’s a good thing”
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Senior batsman Ahmed Shehzad believes it was a good thing that pace spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi was dropped.
Afridi has not been taking wickets consistently enough as of late, while his attitude was reportedly a problem as well as he allegedly misbehaved with the coaches and team management during the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Since the 24-year-old is not doing what is expected of him, Shehzad fully approves of the decision to axe him from the side until he gets his act together.
“You dropped him, that’s a good thing,” he said in a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
Afridi recently played in Pakistan’s two-Test series against Bangladesh and took two wickets in one match at an average of 48.
He was dropped for the second Test in order to work on certain aspects of his bowling, according to Pakistan red-ball head coach Jason Gillespie.
Pakistan were nowhere close to their best in the series and were subsequently whitewashed 2-0.
Afridi is now representing the Lions in the Champions One-Day Cup, which is a domestic 50-over tournament being played in Faisalabad.
Afridi began with two wickets against the Stallions before claiming three against the Panthers.
Next up for Pakistan will be a three-match Test series against England from October 7 to 28.
Pakistan Squad for Bangladesh Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Hurraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Shaheen Shah Afridi
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