20 YEARS OF BOOM BOOM

It was Octuber2, 1996 a new name was mounted in the ODI team of Pakistan during the four nations “Sameer Cup 1996-97.” In the first match against Kenya he went wicktless and also didn’t get chance to bat. The second appearance was against Srilanka, the player who came to bat at number 3 as a pinch hitter smatched fastest 100 of ODI history from 37 deliveries! His innings comprise of 0610400600661166264400661411041606024100, the name SHAHID AFRIDI (born name SHAHIBZADA MOHAMMAD SHAHID KHAN AFRIDI) now emerged as youngest player to score an ODI century, 16 years and 217 days. After a spam of playing 66 ODIs Shahid Afridi made his test debut in 1998 he didn’t played a big inning from bat but was able to get 5 wickets against Australia. The second test was against India, and the rounded performance here was remarkable. Here Afridi scored his maiden test century scoring 141 runs from 191 balls and manage to get 3 wickets for 54 runs. The journey continued, scorning more runs from bat and collecting more wickets, Shahid Afridi was named as most consistence player of 2005. With regard to focus on 2007 World Cup Shahid Afridi announce temporary retirement from test cricket on April12 2006 but he came back on coach Woolmer calls and played his last test in 2010 vs. Australia. His test career include 27 matches in which he played 48 innings and scored 1716 runs with 220 4s,52 6s and 156 as highest score. He further reached to pick 48 wickets with best bowling average 5-43.

The well known title BOOM BOOM was given to him by recognized Indian commentator Ravi Shastri, after he scored second fastest 100 of ODI history of 45 balls against India. The famous name of Shahid Afridi by his natives and fan is LALA (big brother). Asia cup 2010 was the first ICC event in which Shahid Afridi led the National side in ODI, during his first three matches as ODI captain he scored two centuries against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh he finished as the tournaments highest run scorer with 384 runs from 3 matches.Shahid Afridi is the only captain who take Team Pakistan in semis of ICC world cup after 1999. The name Shahid Afridi is rope in among 22 bowlers of the ODI’s who has taken 250+ wickets and he got the average 33.68 and on number two among 22 bowlers of the world. The aggressive boy hasn’t faced 100 balls in his entire carrier, his longest innings winds up on 94 balls. BOOM BOOM also deals with most number of man of the match awards from Pakistani side in ODIs. In Pakistan's opening match of theICC world cup 2011, Afridi took 5 wickets for 16 runs against Kenya, giving him the best bowling figures by a Pakistan bowler in a World Cup .He remained the captain of national team in ODIs from 2009-14, in this duaration team played 38 matches out of which 19 ends up with victory, 18 loss and 1 with no result. The most remembered event of his captaincy was ICC world cup 2011 when Pakistan was defeated by India in the semis knock out. Shahid Afridi said good bye to another form of cricket and played his last ODI on March 20, 2015 against Australia in the ground of Adelaide. In total, he played 398 games scored 8064 runs, 124 as highest score with 730 4s and 351 6s and took 127 catches. With ball he picked 395 wickets with best bowling figure 7-12 and conceived 13632 runs all together. His extraordinary achievement includes twice runs and wickets in comparison to legendary Imran Khan in ODIs.

 Shahid khan Afridi the man with record of taking most wickets by any all rounder and recently named as leading wicket taker of world t20 led the side in T20 format first time in 2009 after ICC WT20 and Younis Khan’s retirement. He remained captain from 2009-11 and later in 2014 he was again crowned as captain till current. Team Pakistan marked 15 victories and defeats out of 30 matches under his captaincy. With 210 matches yet played he is the man with most played T20 in history of cricket also Afridi is the only player in T20 cricket who made 2000+ runs and take 97 wickets. The name Shahid Afridi is not small in the history of cricket, not only in Pakistan but in the entire world the crowd chants for him whenever he steps on the pitch either with ball or bat. His rapid fire batting & his signature style after picking batsmen each is equally enjoyed by his followers. This magnificent cricket career has completed 20 years today!  Number of records keeps getting aside the name with passage of time.

One can’t forget that fastest 100 in very first inning, 100 of 45 balls against India, 2009 t20 World Cup and his duty on the pitch the most recent and breath taking last over of Ashwin (ASIA CUP 2014). It isn’t easy to neglect his services and it wouldn’t be fair even. People who even don’t know cricket knows Shahid Afridi, half of the kids of Pakistan quote his name as their favorite cricketer.

LALA is hot in news these days as struggling for a farewell match, the PCB is working over it. One who entertained us for 20 years is waiting from long just for a single match to end his career with honor. It’s about respecting our legends and with sorry we are really poor in this, we give rise and fall to players just after witnessing particular game and same trend is adopted in Afridi’s case, couple years of ghastly show and your entire career seem as dust.

Probably no one can put clear justification why he shouldn’t be granted with send off game.?