Shahid Afridi receives flak for dismal performance at the Asia Cup

Time to say goodbye?

The future of the talismanic Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi is in serious doubt as his team crashed out of the Asia Cup after an embarrassing defeat to Bangladesh. Former Pakistani cricketers also blamed the inefficient Pakistani batsmen for this debacle.

Afridi faces the flak because of his string of poor performances with both bat and ball. Even his captaincy is under the scanner, as Misbah-Ul-Haq and Saeed Ajmal have questioned his tactics of not giving Shoaib Malik enough overs. According to Misbah, the ball was gripping and it would have been ideal to give Shoaib Malik his full quota of overs.

Former greats calling for his head

Former greats like Javed Miandad, Mohammad Yousuf, Mohsin Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz have lambasted Pakistan’s batting and Miandad went on to call it as one of the worst batting performances of recent times. Mohammad Yousuf lamented the fact that the batsmen lacked proper application and technique to survive on these sort of tracks.

Miandad also questioned Shahid Afridi’s spot in the team and he clearly demanded a new captain to bring in a new mindset in the team. He said, “When the captain's place in the side is not confirmed how can we expect good results.”

Yousuf too was equally sceptical about Afridi’s place in the squad and according to him, Afridi should seriously rethink his future. He also added that despite being the most experienced member of the squad, Afridi has been unable to deliver performances when Pakistan needed them the most.

The Last Nail in the Coffin

Afridi had a great chance to resuscitate his stature in the game against Bangladesh. When he came to bat, the stage was set for him to explode and bail his team out of trouble. But disappointing everyone, even his most loyal fans, he skied a full toss off Bangladeshi pacer Al-Amin and got out for a duck. 

Though with the ball Afridi shone a little by castling the in-form Sabbir Rahman, he couldn’t really inspire his team to cross the final hurdle. The two no-balls from Mohammed Sami in the penultimate over put an end to Pakistan’s hopes and may have just put the final nail in Afridi’s career too.

It seems that the mercurial Pakistan all-rounder is seriously under the pump. He has overcome many hurdles in his playing career but this might just be the toughest one to overcome.