Shahid Afridi, the current captain of the ODI and T20 Pakistan teams, is one of the most interesting all-round cricketers of all time. He has rightly earned his nickname ‘Boom Boom’ because of his explosive batting style, but over the years he is becoming renowned more for his aggressive spin bowling. Afridi has some of the best batting averages in the game and he has achieved some unbelievable records. Yet, the other interesting fact about the Pakistani captain is that he is also one of the most inconsistent players of all time. He is the only player in the game ever to score 6000 ODI runs but have an average of only 25. The current spot fixing controversy has left Afridi reeling and he is desperately trying to regroup his players and win the ODI series. Hopefully he will emerge a better player and a better captain at the end of these ordeals.
Afridi made his international debut at the age of 16 for the Pakistani team as a leg spinner. Even though he was supposed to be a spinner, he started to become better known as a pinch hitter. The interesting aspect of his game was the fact that when he would come out to bat he would hit huge strokes, make a decent score, push the teams’ total and then promptly get out. He became known for his ability to hit sixes and make very large scores in a short period of time. In what was only his second match, he scored the fastest century of all time, achieving it in only 37 balls. He also shares the third fastest century along with Brian Lara, scored from 45 balls. He even holds the record for the sixth fastest century which he achieved in 53 balls. Overall in the ODI format of the game he has reached not only 6000 runs but he’s also managed to take over 270 wickets as well. He is one of the best all-rounders in the world at the moment. In early 2010, Afridi was named as the captain of Pakistan in all three formats of the game, though he later retired from test cricket.
Over the years, a lot of people have felt that Afridi was too inconsistent to play in the test format of the game. But, he still has some notable innings to his name and has achieved some great feats in the test format of the sport. His reason for retiring from test cricket was that he felt that his style of play was not suited to the longer version of the game. Afridi’s batting style is very aggressive but then so is his bowling style. A lot of people comment on his batting but over the years with his explosive batting performances slowly diminishing, he has become better known as an attacking spin bowler. One of the best aspects of his bowling style was that he would bowl ball after ball in very quick succession and in doing so he would disorient the batters who are used to pauses between balls. Additionally, he is also able to reduce the run rate of a team in the process. His most fearsome delivery was the fast ball. He is one of the only spin bowlers in the world who was able to bowl the ball at 80 mph and has also been known to bowl the odd bouncer at a batsman. Over the years even his fast ball is rarely seen anymore and it looks like Afridi could be close to retirement.
The great player has not been without controversy in his career though. In 2005, he was caught by cameras stomping on the pitch during a match. It looked like he was trying to ruin the pitch so the ball would swing and spin more so as to favour the Pakistani team when it was bowling. In 2007, he was suspended for four games after he swung his bat and almost hit a spectator who was swearing at him as he walked back to the dressing room. One of the worst incidents of his career took place earlier this year when he was caught on camera chewing a ball. He was trying to tamper with it to change its shape so that it would swing better. He had put all those controversies behind him only to find then that he was suddenly caught in the middle of the current spot fixing scandal that has engulfed the Pakistani team.
It seems that Afridi will retire from the sport of cricket soon because it looks like his explosive hitting power and his ability to bowl the faster delivery have deserted him. He is 30 years old but he may still have a few years left in him. Afridi will always be known as one of the greatest, yet craziest, all round players to set foot on a cricket pitch.
