Basit Ali: “Naseem has better fitness, and Shaheen is currently struggling with it. But Shaheen is better than Naseem”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali believes fast bowler Naseem Shah is not as good as Shaheen Shah Afridi, even though the latter is struggling with his fitness at the moment.
Basit even said that Naseem has “better fitness”, but conceded when weighing up all their attributes, Afridi comes out on top in his opinion.
Both Afridi and Naseem have been Pakistan’s go-to pace bowlers in all three formats, but they haven’t been in the best of form as of late.
“Naseem has better fitness, and Shaheen is currently struggling with it. But Shaheen is better than Naseem,” Basit said on his YouTube channel as quoted by NDTV.
Afridi and Naseem featured in Pakistan’s two-Test series against Bangladesh, but both of them only played in the first Test, taking two wickets and three wickets respectively.
Afridi then proceeded to captain the Lions in the Champions One-Day Cup, which was a 50-over tournament held in Faisalabad, and claimed nine wickets in four games at an average of 29.33.
As for Naseem, he represented the Markhors and finished with six wickets in four matches at an average of 17.16.
Most recently, both speedsters played in the first Test against England, with Afridi picking up one wicket and Naseem taking two.
The men in green lost the first Test in Multan by an innings and 47 runs, and Afridi and Naseem were subsequently rested for the second and third Tests.
Pakistan won the second Test by 152 runs, while the third Test starts on October 24 in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan Squad for 2nd and 3rd Tests against England: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Kamran Ghulam, Mehran Mumtaz, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Hurraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Zahid Mahmood.
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