Shaheen Shah Afridi: “Really happy for Shafique, he is the future of Pakistan cricket”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Left-arm pace bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi believes opening batsman Abdullah Shafique “is the future of Pakistan cricket”.
Shafique has shown great potential in his international career and was recently in action in the three-match ODI series against New Zealand, where he made 70 runs at an average of 23.33.
Lately, concerns have been raised about the 25-year-old’s consistency when it comes to scoring runs, but Afridi has backed the Sialkot native to achieve great things for the country.
“Really happy for Shafique, he is the future of Pakistan cricket,” he was quoted as saying by Geo Super.
After Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand, Shafique played alongside Afridi for the Lahore Qalandars in the 2025 Pakistan Super League (PSL) and finished as the fourth-highest run-scorer with 390 runs in 13 games, which included three fifties, at an average of 32.50 and a strike-rate of 148.28.
Despite having an excellent campaign in PSL 10, Shafique was not selected for Pakistan’s three-match T20I series against Bangladesh, which the men in green won 3-0.
Pakistan Squad for Bangladesh T20I Series:Â Salman Ali Agha (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abbas Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan (wicketkeeper) and Saim Ayub
[TS_Poll id=”31″]