Birthday special: Shahid Afridi – Charismatic cricketer who’s young at heart
Shahid Afridi. There is a sense of permanence in the name as far as Pakistan cricket is concerned. Afridi served Pakistan cricket with distinction for close to two decades and emerged as one of the greatest match-winners for the Pakistan side.
When Afridi started out, T20 cricket was still unheard of, people did not know what was franchise cricket, and ODI cricket was still the ‘shortest’ format of the game. And, through the course of an illustrious career that has lasted two decades, Afridi played a colossal 398 ODI matches and 99 T20Is for the Pakistan side.
A limited-overs giant in every sense of the word, Afridi scalped a colossal 395 wickets in ODI cricket with his crafty leg-spin. The veteran cricketing legend is also the highest wicket-taker for the Pakistan side in T20I cricket and took 98 wickets.
Afridi was also the man who never knew to hold back when he was batting. The right-hander threw caution to the winds, and till he was out there in the middle wielding the willow, there was a sense of dread in the opposition camp.
Afridi scored over 8000 runs in ODI cricket, but what made the opposition captain shudder was the fact that the right-hander scored his runs at a strike rate of 117.01. Afridi also scored 1416 runs in T20I cricket and scored at a strike rate of 150.
He also caught the spotlight when he smashed the then fastest ODI hundred ever. In an ODI match against Sri Lanka on 4th October 1996, the right-hander plundered a 37-ball ton and powered Pakistan to a clinical 82-run win over the opposition. It is, till today, the fastest hundred scored by a Pakistan batter in ODI cricket.
Afridi was the main catalyst of the Pakistan side at a time when ODI cricket was at the peak of its popularity in the 1990s, and he was also around in the 2010s, at a time when the ODI format of the game has been overshadowed by the prominence of T20I cricket.
Afridi is a colossal cricketing figure in Pakistan who has seen it all and done it all. Here is wishing this cricket icon a happy 42nd birthday.
