Shaheen Shah Afridi: “He was out of touch for some time, still, I believe he can do well, but I believe he can still make his name in the white-ball cricket as well”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan left-arm pace bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi believes top order batsman Abdullah Shafique has what it takes to make a name for himself in limited overs cricket.
Shafique has featured in 12 ODIs and six T20Is to date, and averages 34.66 and 12.80 respectively.
Afridi also backed the 24-year-old to rediscover his form after making a red-hot start in Test cricket.
Shafique was unstoppable at one point, but has experienced a dip in form in his last few series.
The Sialkot native was recently involved in Pakistan’s two-Test series against Bangladesh and mustered 42 runs at an average of 10.50.
Despite admitting that Shafique has been “out of touch for some time”, Afridi is optimistic that the runs will start flowing for him once again.
“He was out of touch for some time, still, I believe he can do well, but I believe he can still make his name in the white-ball cricket as well,” he was quoted as saying by PakPassion on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Following the Bangladesh series, Shafique represented the Lions in the Champions One-Day Cup, which was a domestic 50-over tournament held in Faisalabad.
In the four matches he played, he scored 89 runs, which included a top score of 52, at an average of 22.25.
Pakistan’s next assignment will be a three-Test series against England, which will take place from October 7 to 28 in Multan and Rawalpindi.
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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