Earlier Shaheen Afridi was hoped to be the heir to the title of Pakistan’s best pace bowler after the former cricketer Wasim Akram, but his recent downfall has deemed him a burden for his team.

Mainly, the 24-year-old was compared with a legendary pacer like Wasim Akram due to his strong fast bowling skills that dismantled the batting lineup of the opponent team. His knee injury before the T20 World Cup 2022 ruined his cricket career and turned him into an ordinary fast bowler struggling to take crucial wickets for his team. 

After a disappointing first test match against England, in which Shan Masood’s led side lost by an innings and 47 runs, the PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) made a shocking decision to exclude Shaheen Afridi from the next two test matches. In addition, his teammates Babar Azam and Naseem Shah were dropped from the squad for the ongoing home test series.

However, PCB’s move turned out to be favorable as Pakistan triumphed over England in the second test match by 152 runs, thereby ending their losing streak of six consecutive test matches.

Since his debut in international cricket in 2018, Shaheen grabbed 316 wickets as of October 2024 across all three different formats including:

• Tests: 116 wickets in 31 matches.
• ODIs: 104 wickets in 53 matches.
• T20Is: 96 wickets in 70 matches.

Particularly, in the red-ball format that defined his skills as the strongest pace bowler, Shaheen Afridi’s performance completely dipped in the continuing World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 cycle, which includes the home test series against Bangladesh and England as well. 

Shaheen Shah Afridi Performance in WTC 2023-25 cycle: Overseas and Home Test Series 

Starting from the Sri Lankan tour in the WTC 2023-25 cycle, Shaheen Afridi’s performance gradually declined and these are the below stats prove that he managed to take just 3 wickets in the recent home test series :

Has Frequent Injuries Resulted in the Downfall of Shaheen Afridi in Recent Times?

The PCB should be blamed for Shaheen Afridi’s downfall as they forced him to take part in major tournaments immediately after recovering from his knee issue in 2022, which resulted in frequent injuries.

It all started when Shaheen underwent knee surgery after the Sri Lanka test series in 2022. Despite he managed to make a comeback in the T20 World Cup 2022, the injury got worse during the tournament’s final while attempting to grab a crucial catch of England’s batter Harry Brook. This prevented him not bowling more than 2.1 overs which became a main reason for England winning their 2nd T20 World Cup title.

Once again in Asia Cup 2023, Shaheen Afridi injured his finger while fielding in the second over of the match against India in the Super Four stages of the tournament. However, he managed to play the entire tournament and participated in the ODI World Cup 2023 by ranking as the 7th leading wicket-taker.

But, Afridi’s back-to-back injuries severely impacted his bowling speed and raised questions about his role as a key pacer in Pakistan’s squad. Earlier, he recorded his highest bowling speed of 150 km/hr, but in recent matches, he hardly managed to bowl a speed of 130 km/hr to 135 km/hr.

Especially, in longer formats such as test cricket, he hardly bowls less than 15 to 20 overs per day which points out his deteriorating progress as a pace bowler.

His inconsistency paved the way for part-time medium pacers like Mohammed Amir to secure his spot in the T20 World Cup 2024 squad, who grabbed 7 wickets in 4 matches of the tournament.

Is Shaheen Afridi a burden for Pakistan? Final Opinion

Shaheen’s recent stats in test cricket prove that he is no more a tearaway pace bowler who used to rip apart the opponent team batters with his fierce performance, causing him to become a burden for the Pakistan team.

Considering the numbers in the WTC 2023-25 season, he managed to take 18 wickets in 11 test innings but conceded more runs by allowing batters to execute their strokes freely.

Although Shaheen Afridi starts his spell on a dominating note during the initial phases of the innings, his performance in the role of a left-arm medium pacer slows down as the match continues.

However, Shaheen is just 24 years old and has sufficient time to overcome one of the toughest phases of his career. With 4 matches remaining in the upcoming test series against South Africa and West Indies, each comprising 2 games, Afridi needs to reestablish his status as one of the fiercest pace bowlers in the world. Finally, the Pakistan cricket team is eagerly waiting to welcome the young cricketer’s comeback by emerging even stronger than before.