Shahid Afridi

Full name Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi

Born March 1, 1980, Khyber Agency

Current age 30 years 303 days

Major teams Pakistan, Asia XI, Deccan Chargers,Fly Emirates XI, Griqualand West, Habib Bank Limited,ICC World XI, Karachi, Leicestershire, South Australia

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Legbreak googly

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	27	48	1	1716	156	36.51	1973	86.97	5	8	220	52	10	0
ODIs	306	288	18	6431	124	23.81	5676	113.30	6	30	591	280	101	0
T20Is	41	39	3	657	54*	18.25	455	144.39	0	3	54	25	12	0
First-class	111	183	4	5631	164	31.45			12	30			75	0
List A	397	376	21	9081	124	25.58			8	49			124	0
Twenty20	80	73	5	1260	54*	18.52	788	159.89	0	3	105	61	24	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	27	47	3194	1709	48	5/52	5/43	35.60	3.21	66.5	1	1	0
ODIs	306	282	13110	10143	288	6/38	6/38	35.21	4.64	45.5	2	3	0
T20Is	41	41	936	961	49	4/11	4/11	19.61	6.16	19.1	2	0	0
First-class	111		13493	7023	258	6/101		27.22	3.12	52.2		8	0
List A	397		17205	13301	392	6/38	6/38	33.93	4.63	43.8	3	5	0
Twenty20	80	80	1743	1851	94	4/11	4/11	19.69	6.37	18.5	3	0	0

Shahid Afridi is an entertaining all rounder who exploded onto the cricketing world by hitting the fastest ODI hundred (off only 37 balls) in his maiden innings. This was back in 1996 yet 13 years on that innings, some would argue that knock despite its brilliant was the undoing of Shahid Afridi

Afridi has to date played 285 ODI matches for Pakistan in which he has scored 5755 runs at an average of 23 whilst he has taken 264 wickets at an average of 34.69

He has always played cricket in an aggressive manner, though some would say reckless and he has refused to curb his aggressiveness. His style of play was and continues to be criticised by many but he equally has an army of fans who adore his daring approach to the game.

He spent the majority of his career as an opener for Pakistan, where he lacked consistency as good starts were thrown away. He was quite fortunate to have played as many games and was not too far from finally losing his spot in the side.

It was the late Bob Woolmer who helped him turn things around. His role in the team was changed and he became a very useful player. Woolmer utilised his hitting power by moving him down the order where he played many quickfire innings. Also this was the time when he truly became an all rounder as Woolmer recognised the strength of Afridi’s leg spin which was grossly underused previously, he was no longer a part time bowler but could have made the side on the strength of his bowling alone. He was transformed from an inconsistent batsman into a fine bowling all rounder. His fielding is also top class, he never gives up and his agility has got him some quality catches and saved many runs for Pakistan.

This period under Woolmer was when he broke into the Test side and performed very well. He scored runs at a healthy strike rate. His bowling was handy at Test level where he took some crucial wickets. Things turned when he announced a temporary retirement from Test cricket. Pakistan have not played Test cricket for a while but Afridi has work to do if he wants to regain a spot in the Test side. His last appearance in a test match was at Old Trafford in July 2006 where he scored 15 and 17 and took 1 for 76 in a heavy defeat for Pakistan against a Steve Harmison inspired England team.

His bolwing has improved in leaps and bound and has now become a leading bowler for the side. Although many felt that Afridi had played his best and last innings in 1996, he came to the party in the T20 World Cup in 2009. Two exceptionally un-Afridi like fifties in the semi final and final won Pakistan the trophy and Afridi legendary status as he stood mid-pitch hands outstretched like a superhero. It gave Pakistani supporters some hope that Afridi can for once become the all-rounder they all hoped he would be. His recent maturity and form has given him the honour of captaining Pakistan in T20 Internationals.

Recently speaking to PakPassion, Afridi stated that he wanted to concentrate solely on ODI and T20 cricket till at least 2011. Keeping with this trend, he has just recently signed to play for South Australia as their international player in the T20 KFC Big Bash Competition.