The Pakistani pacer Shaheen Afridi has established himself as one of the best pacers of the present times but it hasn’t been easy for him. In a video which was recently shared by Pakistan Cricket Board, he revealed that he was so fed up of injury issues that there were times when he thought of taking retirement from the game.
Shaheen Afridi has been out of the cricketing action for months now because of his knee injury. During the Asia Cup 2022, he was seen walking with the help of crutches and in the finals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 against England, he once again injured his knee which was already hurt and he had to leave the match midway. Shaheen Afridi underwent a knee surgery and it seems that he is completely healed now.
In both the tournaments, Pakistan ended up as runners-up and now Shaheen Afridi is all set to make his comeback in the Pakistan Super League which is scheduled to start from 13th February 2023. He will be leading his team Lahore Qalandars and most probably, he will be back in action in the season opener which his team will be playing against Multan Sultans.
In the video, the pacer stated that he was working only on one muscle which was not showing signs of improvement; there were times during the rehabilitation sessions when he was not able to take it anymore and wanted to give up. He further said that he kept himself motivated by watching his old videos on YouTube and by telling himself that he did so well in the past which encouraged him to work more on recovery.
The Pakistani cricket team played a test series against England and after that, it played a test series against New Zealand. Talking about the test match against England which Pakistan lost by 26 runs, Shaheen Afridi said that he wanted to jump back into action at that time as the Pakistani lower order wasn’t able to finish the game for the country, Shaheen Afridi added that he wanted to hit some sixes and finish the game for Pakistan. He stated that when England batters were scoring runs, at that time also he wanted to make contribution with ball.
Shaheen Afridi is the leading pacer of the Pakistani team and his fitness is very important for the team, especially because the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 is going to take place this year.