Shaheen flying high

In the Persian language, the word ‘Shaheen’ means royal white falcon, and Pakistan pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi is completely living up to his name.

In the official youtube channel of the Pakistan Cricket Board, there is a video about the preparation camp of the 2018 Under-19 World Cup, where a young Shaheen was featured as one of the aspirants from Landi Kotal, the westernmost part of Khyber.

Young Shaheen made it to the U-19 World Cup 2018 and took 12 wickets in five matches. Since then, there was no looking back for the tall, aggressive left-arm pacer, occasionally reminding everyone of Wasim Akram.

Shaheen made his debut for Pakistan in April 2018, just two months after the U-19 World Cup. Since then, he has become the spearhead of Pakistan’s pace bowling.

Shaheen is the younger brother of Riaz Afridi, who played one match for Pakistan, but made sure his brother played more.

“A very important part of my life is my brother Riaz Afridi. He was a Test cricketer. By seeing him, playing with him, and going to the academy with him, I always wanted to be a fast bowler,” he told the media on Friday.

“Even I also could not imagine that I will play all three formats very soon. Thanks to almighty that I am playing regularly and doing well too. I want to enjoy my cricket this way,” he added.

Shaheen has been compared with Wasim Akram, but the pacer thinks the tag is too heavy.

“Whenever the captain hands me the ball, my only goal is to give my 100%. Taking a wicket is not in my hands. I can only try to bowl aggressively and give my efforts to make the team win. I can only try my best,” said the 21-year-old pacer.

Both Hasan Ali and Shaheen picked five-wicket hauls in the Chattogram Test against Bangladesh, and together they have formed one of the deadliest bowing pairs of this era.

“I enjoy bowling with Hasan. We bowl in a partnership. Whenever a batsman is playing well against us, we plan to get him out. We devise a plan how to confuse him, contain him. Hasan is a fighter, I like bowling with him,” said Shaheen.

Both Shaheen and Hasan did most of the damage for Bangladesh in Chattogram, but Shaheen said that it was not an easy task to bowl on placid decks.

“Most of the wickets in Asia are on the slower side. People say that spinners get help on these surfaces, but if one is well built and strong, he can also become very effective. Here bowling in pairs is the key. Hasan must get his share of credit as well. Whenever I bowl with Hasan, we fix among ourselves that who will go for attack and who will check the runs. Whether it’s a three-over spell or a five-over spell, I want to bowl aggressively. We want to repeat our performances in the second Test,” Shaheen told the media.

Shaheen has a habit of striking early and he did that against Bangladesh in the Chattogram Test too, where he picked two wickets in the same over twice.

“It’s not easy to pick two in a row in Test cricket, it’s really hard. Every minute, every session is hard, that’s why it is called Tests. I try to bowl fuller-length deliveries, it’s not easy to dismiss the Bangladesh batsmen, they have some quality cricketers,” said the pacer.