Cricket Lines: Shahid Khan Afridi

Shahid Khan Afridi

Full name Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi

Born March 1, 1980, Khyber Agency

Major teams Pakistan, Asia XI, Deccan Chargers,

Fly Emirates XI, Griqualand West, Habib Bank Limited,

ICC World XI, Karachi, Leicestershire, South Australia

Playing role Allrounder

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Legbreak googly

Relation Brother - Tariq Afridi, Brother - Ashfaq Afridi

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.

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct
Tests	27	48	1	1716	156	36.51	1973	86.97	5	8	220	52	10
ODIs	325	303	18	6695	124	23.49	5882	113.82	6	31	615	289	107
T20Is	43	41	3	683	54*	17.97	474	144.09	0	3	56	26	12
First-class	111	183	4	5631	164	31.45			12	30			75
List A	416	391	21	9345	124	25.25			8	50			130
Twenty20	90	82	5	1386	54*	18.00	889	155.90	0	3	116	65	26

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w
Tests	27	47	3194	1709	48	5/52	5/43	35.60	3.21	66.5	1	1
ODIs	325	300	14056	10782	315	6/38	6/38	34.22	4.60	44.6	4	5
T20Is	43	43	971	1005	53	4/11	4/11	18.96	6.21	18.3	3	0
First-class	111		13493	7023	258	6/101		27.22	3.12	52.2		8
List A	416		18151	13940	419	6/38	6/38	33.26	4.60	43.3	5	7
Twenty20	90	90	1952	2056	112	5/20	5/20	18.35	6.31	17.4	4	1

Career statistics

Test debut	Pakistan v Australia at Karachi, Oct 22-26, 1998
Last Test	Australia v Pakistan at Lord's, Jul 13-16, 2010
ODI debut	Kenya v Pakistan at Nairobi (Aga), Oct 2, 1996
Last ODI	West Indies v Pakistan at Providence, May 5, 2011

T20I debut	England v Pakistan at Bristol, Aug 28, 2006
Last T20I	West Indies v Pakistan at Gros Islet, Apr 21, 2011
First-class debut	1995/96
Last First-class	Australia v Pakistan at Lord's, Jul 13-16, 2010
List A debut	1995/96
Last List A	West Indies v Pakistan at Providence, May 5, 2011
Twenty20 debut	Kent v Middlesex at Maidstone, Jul 2, 2004
Last Twenty20	Sussex v Hampshire at Hove, Jul 10, 2011

Recent matches

Bat & Bowl	Team	Opposition	Ground	Match Date	Scorecard
24, 0/10	Hampshire	v Sussex	Hove	10 Jul 2011	Twenty20
0/38, 36	Hampshire	v Surrey	The Oval	8 Jul 2011	Twenty20
4, 1/31	Hampshire	v Essex	Southampton	6 Jul 2011	Twenty20
3/16	Hampshire	v Middlesex	Uxbridge	1 Jul 2011	Twenty20
0, 1/13	Hampshire	v Kent	Southampton	30 Jun 2011	Twenty20
29, 3/10	Hampshire	v Sussex	Southampton	27 Jun 2011	Twenty20
5, 5/20	Hampshire	v Gloucs	Southampton	24 Jun 2011	Twenty20
1/23, 2	Hampshire	v Essex	Chelmsford	23 Jun 2011	Twenty20
38*, 1/22	Hants 2nd	v Surr 2nd XI	Purley	31 May 2011	Other T20
9, 0/31	Pakistan	v West Indies	Providence	5 May 2011	ODI # 3156