What tempts me to write this post is a recent interview with Shahid Afridi taken by a local television network in Pakistan. Afridi, codenamed ‘Boom Boom’, is a character that is really worth discussing in the context of Pakistan cricket and even world cricket in general.

It was 1996 when, for the first time, a tournament was played in Kenya where the local team hosted Pakistan and SriLanka. Afridi wasn’t part of that tour initially but he was part of an under 19 team playing in a country nearby. He was made the part of the team to strengthen the bowling as both Wasim Akram and Mushtaq Ahmed had some injury problems. Taken in as an all rounder, he showed some hitting ability during the net practice sessions and this is what tempted the team management to send him in as a pinch hitter against SriLanka. What followed took the cricket world by storm as he converted his first innings in the international arena into a feast that was remembered for years to come. He scored a century off 37 balls, a record that is still unbroken.

Afridi was an instant star with the Pakistan ODI team after the world record century knock, but his form with the bat and his attitude towards the game kept his place in the team always in doubt. There were always varied opinions about him, a certain group of managers would want him in the team as a striker and playing his natural game, another group wanted him to calm down and change his style of game. Whatever the point of view maybe about him, no one could stop discussing him. From captains to chairmen of the board to a local boy playing tennis ball in the street, everybody had Afridi on mind. He became and still is the most popular cricketer in Pakistan.

Despite his early batting heroics, he could not cement a place in the Pakistan team mainly because of his inconsistency with the bat. He was tried numerous positions by different captains. On his day, he tore the opposition apart but mostly failed to score big since his style of batting wasn’t ‘safe’ enough to stay on the crease for long. This inconsistent performance let him down a number times and he was dropped a number of times from the ODI team during his career.

His Test career, however, tells another story. He was never considered a Test player but his Test average is much better than his ODI average in batting whereas there isn’t much difference in bowing averages either. He has scored more centuries in Tests than in ODIs and three of these came against arch rivals India while two were scored against West Indies. He has made a difference a number of times in the Test matches, both with the bat and the ball and is the sort of player that can turn the whole match around in a single session. However he is simply not considered for selection in Test Matches by the selection committee since he himself had told them he is not available for Test Matches.

In recent times, Afridi successfully managed in cementing his place in the Pakistan ODI side. This success is much attributed to his bowling. It’s interesting that the Afridi who seems to appear mindless at times when batting turns out to be a very sensible and level headed person when it comes to bowling. He is exactly opposite his batting self when bowling and this is an amazing contradiction. He realized in the recent years that he can stay in the side as a bowler and his misadventures with the bat can be neglected if he’s bowling economically and taking wickets. He really worked hard on his bowling and developed certain variations that have been difficult for the batsmen to cope with.

His fans have always hoped that for his batting consistency though, and bowling isn’t his reason for being famous. Still he went against the crowd sentiments and focused more on his bowling. However, this ‘full of surprises’ individual had another surprise in his armory that he unleashed in the T20 World Cup earlier this year.

Afridi, as some people say, suddenly realized how to bat in that T20 tournament where Pakistanis where crowned champions. He played consecutive innings in the tournament staying on the crease and waiting for the lose deliveries to help Pakistan lift the T20 world cup. It was a totally different Afridi on display during that world cup. Some of his shots as cool as Tendulkar used to play in his early years; he came along as a surprise for everyone and every team in the tournament. They had no answer to a changed Afridi, they had never thought, never planned for him.

After Younis Khan’s resignation from T20 cricket, he is now the T20 captain of Pakistan and holds a 100% win record although played only a few matches as captain.

Tags: afridi, boom boom, shahid

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 7:10 am and is filed under Players. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.