Former captain of the Pakistan Cricket team Waqar Younis has criticized Shaheen Afridi for promoting himself up the order to bat against Multan Sultan in the first qualifier at Gaddafi Stadium.
With Qalandars struggling at 19/3 in chase of 160, Shaheen, largely seen as a tail-ender decided to join Sam Billings at the crease. His stay was a short one as he was the next batter to fall, skying a catch to Usman Khan from Sheldon Cottrell’s bowling on just the second delivery he faced.
He was dismissed with Qalandars on 28 runs and practically out of the game.
“It’s totally a wrong decision to promote yourself in batting when you already have proper batters left,” the now commentator said.
“It’s like giving a new ball to someone else than Shaheen. How will he feel then? I think Sikandar Raza and others were there to bat, you can’t take such a decision in a big game like this,” he continued.
Perhaps Waqar Younis should not have been surprised as Shaheen Afridi has done this plenty of times in PSL 8. He has often come in early than established batters with his team struggling, ostensibly to protect them from the surging bowlers.
His decisions to come in early have been hit or miss all throughout PSL 8 but there seems to be no stopping him.
Shaheen and Lahore Qalandars will get another shot at redemption when they face the winner of Eliminator 1 between Peshawar Zalmi and Islamabad United on Friday.
