PSL Team:
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Peshawar Zalmis
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Category:
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Platinum
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Country:
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Pakistan
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Born:
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Mar 01, 1980
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Playing Role:
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All Rounder
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Batting Style:
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Right Hand
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Bowling Style:
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Spinner
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Profile
Of Shahid Afridi it can safely be said that cricket
never has and never will see another like him. To say he is an
allrounder is to say Albert Einstein was a scientist; it tells a
criminally bare story.
For a start, the slant of his all-round skills only
became clear ten years into his career; he is a leg-spinning
allrounder. Variety is his calling and as well as a traditional
leg-break, he has two googlies, a conventional offie and a lethal faster
one, though this is increasingly rare. All come with the threat of
considerable, late drift. He fairly hustles through overs, which in
limited-over formats is a weapon in itself and the package is dangerous.
But forever associated with him will be his madcap
batting, the prospect of which is a crowd-puller the world over. He is a
compulsive basher, literally unable to control his urges to slog every
ball that comes his way, and not much of it is classical. Often
spectacular results are at hand; he owns, for example, two of the
fastest ODI hundreds, including the fastest one ever in his first
innings ever at the age of 16. His career strike rates are nearly
unmatched. But mostly, anywhere in the order, consistency has been
missing.
Despite a healthy Test career, he gave up on the
format in 2006, pre-empting men such as Andrew Flintoff, to maximise
fully a limited-overs career. He came back, in inimitable fashion, for
one Test only, as captain no less in 2010. A loss and two slogs meant he
re-retired immediately after. Twenty20 is something he could've been
made for and he is among the most lethal players of the format, having
been player of the tournament for the inaugural edition of the World
Twenty20 in 2007 and led Pakistan to the title two years later with
matchwinning all-round hands in the semi and final.
Maturity has often threatened to gatecrash his
career and leadership was a just reward, though it was taken away from
him in 2011 after an immature spat; another retirement was announced but
none of it will change much a truly unique career. Osman Samiuddin