True he is no more the player as he was long back but if we rewind ourselves to pre T20 arena, the ODI actually showed glimpses of Explosive Cricket post 1996 world Cup where Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana (excuse me if there is a spelling mistake) showed how to score maximum in first 15 overs playing attacking cricket. In came during that time a young man who stunned the world with a 37 ball century. Sadly, that type of innings could not be repeated again. Even if you see his classic 141 against Indiaa in Chennai 1999, it was magic.
Sadly, Boom Boom Afridi is not very consistent and bcz of that his stats dipped.. He was in a league of his own.. At one time i thought Subcontinent had 3 very destructive openers - Sanath Jayasuriya, Virender Sehwag and Shahid Afridi.
Another player who due to a personal crisis stopped playing was Saeed Anwar. At one time, he along with Sachin were unstoppable.. Anwar role till today could not be replicated by any other opener.
Afridi brief stats
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Shahid Afridi | Pakistan Cricket | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo
If you see recent matches in fen and March 2016, in all 10 matches of T20, he picked up 9 wickets inclusive of one 5 wicket haul, but if i remove it the rest 4 wickets dont justify a very strong case for him in the squad as an all rounder, primarily bcz he is not a miser baller whose spell is used as containment against flow of runs. Also he scored 56 runs in 6 innings with 38 in one inning and rest not being significant contribution...
This is where he is becoming a burden..
Now look at his test career
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Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo
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Batting records | One-Day Internationals | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo
This is his T20 career
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Batting records | Twenty20 Internationals | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo
From 2014 onwards in 2014,2015,2016 his contribution above 20 rs is as follows
2014 - 20*,22,28 - 3 scores in 7 matches, 1 DNB
2015 - 45,24,29 - 3 scores in 10 matches
2016 - 23 - 1 score in 7 matches , 2 DNB
So 7 20+ scores in 24 matches with 3 DNB from 2014-2016 present day
This is where its hurting pakistan
A good question to wonder is - Afridi in either of 6,7,8 position - Is he batting too much lower.. Perhaps 5,6 position suits him better as that may give him 15-20 balls to play and he can get 10 good hits of 6s and 4s with that many balls.
Hope T20 WC sees him in good form
@WAJsal @anant_s
