The left-arm pacer is currently out of the Test setup after being left out of Pakistan’s squads for the tours of the West Indies and England. Shaheen Shah Afridi has made it clear that reclaiming his place in Pakistan’s Test side remains a priority, as he featured in the President’s Trophy on Saturday, marking his first competitive red-ball appearance in domestic cricket since 2019. Since making his Test debut in 2018, Afridi has claimed 126 wickets in 34 matches, and will now look to use his domestic return to stake his claim for a Test comeback.
Pakistan will be hoping that Afridi’s comeback trail bodes well for the Test side that’s coming on the back of a 3-0 ICC World Test Championship series defeat against England.
“Red-ball cricket is always my first priority,” Afridi said, as per the ICC website.
He remains captain of Pakistan’s ODI side, and a home tri-series against England and Sri Lanka is next on the calendar, followed by a home Test series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand later in the year, assignments he will have his sights set on. In the longer format, the longer you spend time on the ground (the better it is) for your confidence, and for your line and length to get fine-tuned. Afridi has continued to show his class with the ball in ODI cricket too, finishing as the leading wicket-taker in the recently concluded Champions Cup, a tournament he also led his side to win, registering bowling figures of 7/36 in the final.
“I learned a lot from my elder brother Riaz Afridi, because he’s played a lot of first-class cricket,” he said. “I’ll try to bowl the same way in first-class cricket as I’ve bowled in Test cricket,” Afridi said.
