It was the winter of 97′, on a cold chili early morning the noise of crowd left me rubbing my eyes. I rushed to the TV; it was my father watching the cricket match between Australia and Pakistan. The crowd was dancing not on the beats, but on the hits of a very handsome young man known as Shahid Afridi. It is the oldest cricketing memory that I can recall from every nock and corner of my mind. Growing up in a cricket crazy atmosphere as a 6 year old, Shahid Afridi and Wasim Akram were my very first heroes.

I still have vague memories of telling my cousin that Wasim is my elder brother. At that time, I loved Afridi just because I’m a right-hander and my brother, being a left hander was a Saeed Anwer fan. I was left mostly embarrassed because Afridi hardly last for any length of time but still before the start of every next game, I sang sings of Afridi. Even before understanding this wonderous game and knowing what Afridi is to the world, I still loved Afridi.

At that time, I just saw test cricket because of Afridi’s batting. The memory of a magnificent test hundred in Chennai of Afridi is still very fresh in my mind. After so many years, watching the highlights I came to realize that how great that inning actually was. Exactly, a decade later in a World T20 in England, Afridi was standing legs wide open in the middle of the pitch, arms raised high towards the sky, his teammates rushing to him like honey bees buzz around a flower. It was the moment when Pakistan became a T20 Champion with Afridi at its centerfold.

This is just not my story but also of those billions of fans around the world who cannot stand a word against this dashing all-rounder. Not many in the world of cricket have such love and affection from the fans. Probably, Imran and Sachin are the only ones who are ahead of Afridi in that regard.

Afridi struggling with the bat is nothing usual over the past one and half decade, it happened numerous times in fact it will not be wrong saying that mostly Afridi has been out of form with the bat. A return to the bowling which was his main job at the start of his career resurrected his flattering international career. For the past six years, without a shadow of doubt he has been the most consistent Pakistani bowler. The canny changes of pace and flight plus the immaculate control to go with well-disguised googlie, a zipping off-spinner and extremely quick fast one made Afridi a mouthwatering prospect with the ball for fans to relish.

Of late, Afridi has struggled even with the ball big time. The control is missing which was usually associated with Afridi’s bowling. He is bowling too many “hit me” balls. The short balls and the full tosses which Afridi, hardly used to bowl, are very common now. Honestly, Afridi has struggled ever since his incredible game changing 5-wickets haul in October last year against Sri Lanka in Sharjah. Though, he picked up wickets against Bangladesh and Afghanistan in that period but against England in February and Sri Lanka in June, he had a rough period. Against the Aussies, he missed the most of the games due to the injury and mostly bowled in the pain. In the warm-up game against India, he did not bowl well and secondly, very fine batting from two very talented youngsters did not help his cause either.

There were a few bright signs from the Pakistani prospective in the warm-up against England. He appeared to be fighting his way back. Though, he ended up wicket-less but was very economical in his spell. It is a thought coming from some quarters that it is about Afridi’s time to hang up his boots.

Now it is up to Afridi, to let the ball do the talking against the critics. Afridi’s form is imperative for the Pakistan’s chances in the tournament. Pakistan cannot bank alone on the batting too much and everyone knows it but with Afridi struggling with the ball, it leaves with just two dependable options in Gul and Ajmal which surely is not enough to win the World T20.

Contributing Writer: Umer Rana