The rise of Shaheen Afridi

Sameen Rana wanted to say his piece, but the young man he regards as something like a son was having none of it.

It was the night before the Pakistan Super League final, back in February. Two years earlier, Lahore Qalandars had played in the corresponding fixture.

That was the first time they made the final of Pakistan’s razzle-dazzle T20 league. Before that, they made a troubled start that caused them to be lampooned by a thousand scornful memes.

They lost the final back then in 2020. But this was now. They were two years older, two years wiser, and infinitely better. But Rana, the chief operating officer of the Qalandars, was still nervous. He wanted to tell the young captain of the franchise he helped build that he was proud of him, no matter what.

But Shaheen Shah Afridi put up the buffers.

“I said to him, ‘I just want to say to you that it’s a game and anything can happen,’” Rana said.

“‘Inshallah, we will win. But I just wanted to tell you I am proud of you.’

“But he was determined not to listen. He was saying, ‘No, no, no. Don’t talk about it. Tomorrow we are going to lift the cup, then we can celebrate.’

“My worry was, if we lose, how are these boys going to overcome this?”

By “these boys”, Rana means the likes of Afridi and Haris Rauf. Players who first became stars at home due to their spellbinding performances for the Qalandars in the PSL, then global ones on the international stage for Pakistan.

Rana said the fast-bowling duo have a relationship like brothers. Having helped oversee their rise as professional cricketers, he feels a responsibility to both. Which is why he was keen to soften the pain if defeat was imminent.

He need not have worried. Afridi, the then 21-year-old captain and embryonic fast-bowling great, was right to be confident. He took three wickets to set up the maiden title win for the Lahore franchise.

“After the final, I went to the dressing room and he was crying his eyes out,” Rana said.

“He had his cap over his face and he was gone. I said, ‘How stupid is this? I was so worried we might lose and you would be crying. Now we won … and you are still crying!’.’”

Success has a thousand fathers, and Rana does not try to claim that Qalandars are solely responsible for making Afridi the star he is today.

He was known about from a young age and had been part of Pakistan age-group sides. Plus he was from good stock: his older brother Riaz had played a Test for Pakistan (and later pushed for a change of allegiance to play for the UAE, too).

Rana is pleased at the part his franchise have played, though, since being prompted to back him after Afridi caused a stir in first-class cricket as a raw teen.

On his first-class debut in 2017, playing for Khan Research Laboratories against Rawalpindi Region in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Afridi took eight wickets in an innings.

Rana and the rest of the brains trust at Qalandars, including head coach Aaqib Javed, prevaricated no longer.

“We were trying to look for an emerging star,” Rana said.

“We were sent a video of Shaheen on social media. Me and Aaqib saw him and invited him to trials. He came along and he was very young, very slim and lanky. Very, very raw.

“Aaqib said, ‘Sameen, he might not be ready.’ I said, ‘Fine, we can go with our other players.’ But then Shaheen played a domestic game and got eight for 39 in a four-day game.

“I called Aaqib and said, ‘If this guy doesn’t have talent, how did he get eight wickets?’ We argued about it. At the end, we had the first pick for an emerging guy.

“Among all players, we picked Shaheen.”

If Javed and Rana had their doubts, Afridi might have been forgiven for feeling similarly. After all, his new team finished last in each of the first four seasons of the PSL.

Despite the barren years, Rana insists his franchise always did one thing right: they showed faith in youth.

“In PSL, teams are only looking for results,” he said. “They give a youngster an opportunity. If he fails, they throw him out.

“What Brendon [McCullum, the first Qalandars captain], Aaqib and myself did was different. When Shaheen came, credit goes to Brendon McCullum. He gave him the death overs. He must have spotted something in him.

“At the time we had Sohail Tanvir and other senior pros. Against Karachi Kings, Brendon threw the ball to a 17-year-old boy who had never played a high-pressure game, or a proper T20 game.

“We were surprised, but Brendon must have seen something. Ravi Bopara was facing, and we were in a pretty good position. Ravi smacked him for 22 runs in that last over.”

“He had tears in his eyes, and I said, ‘What happened?’ He took out a cheque from his pocket and said, ‘I want to return this cheque.’

“I said, ‘What is this cheque?’ It was the fee for the emerging player category - $8,000 or $10,000 – and he said he wanted to return it because he couldn’t perform.

“Honestly, that was where Shaheen won me. I stood up and hugged him, and said, ‘You have no idea how special you are. Why are you even thinking like this?’

“He was emotionally very disturbed at that time. He said, ‘I feel I don’t deserve this money.’

“I reached out to Aaqib and said, ‘Aaqib – we have a problem. One of our boys has broken down, what do we do?’

“Aaqib said, ‘Sameen-bhai, it would be unfair to push him, let’s give him a rest.’ We gave him a rest.

“After two games we brought him back. Credit to Aaqib and Brendon, they were believing in him.

“In the next match, as the team manager I was sat next to Shaheen. I said, ‘Shaheen, today I feel like you are going to be man of the match’.

“I was just trying to pump him up and give him confidence. He said, ‘Sameen-bhai, I will take five wickets today’.

“Guess what? That day he was man of the match.”

Within four years of his PSL debut, Afridi has become a darling of Pakistan’s national team, and one of the most precious assets in all of the sport.

Witnessing him and Rauf in full flow is an experience like no other. The roars that greeted their wickets against India in Dubai last year, as well as those of Rauf and Naseem Shah – Afridi's locum – at the Asia Cup more recently, were like sonic booms. And that ground is only a quarter of the size of the one they could be paired together at in a T20 World Cup match on October 23.

Let’s be honest, no Pakistan v India fixture really needs a fit Afridi to sell it. When the International Cricket Council announced, back in August, a limited number of standing room tickets would be made available for the fixture at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, they sold out within minutes.

The largest cricket ground in the world outside of India will be packed to the rafters, with nearly 100,000 set to be in attendance.

It is a fitting stage for the latest instalment of Afridi v India’s celebrated top order. Pakistan’s chances of success in Melbourne might well be centred on whether or not he can reprise his heroics from a year earlier against the same opposition at Dubai International Stadium.

Afridi has long specialised in box-office opening overs. Even by his lofty standards, his start against India in the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE was special.

Within his first seven balls, he had removed each of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. His blitz wowed all who saw it, even greats of the game.

Matthew Hayden, the former Australia opener, was then working with Pakistan as a batting consultant – as he is again this season. He said the delivery that dismissed Rahul in particular was one of the best he had ever seen.

“The white ball doesn’t swing for a long time,” Hayden said in the days after the last meeting between India and Pakistan at a T20 World Cup, in Dubai last year.

“In T20 cricket in particular it seems to be a number of balls, not a number of overs.

“That number of balls, though, can be destructive, as we saw from his delivery to KL Rahul. That was one of the best balls I have seen, ever.

“He has that ability, like every good strike bowler to be able to commit to wonderful pace.”

Hayden sounded a word of warning, though, based on the heavy workload shouldered by Afridi.

“The challenge for every fast bowler is the cricket programme,” Hayden said.

“Unfortunately, because there is so much cricket, there is that risk of over-bowling and burnout in general.

“It will be about careful management for Pakistan to manage their primary assets, like Babar Azam, Mohammed Rizwan, Fakhar [Zaman] and Shaheen, guys who are playing day in, day out international cricket."

Hayden’s assessment proved prophetic. Batsman Zaman was only passed fit to play at the World Cup at the last minute after injury kept him out of all the practice series, while Afridi's own fitness has been anxiously monitored by an entire nation.

His recuperation from knee ligament damage this summer took him – belatedly - to London, where he worked with the doctor at Premier League football club Crystal Palace. Last week came the news all of Pakistan had been waiting for: he will be fit for selection for the India game.

“It has been a difficult period for me to be away from the game and the team I love the most,” Afridi said, when it was announced he would be fit to join the World Cup squad.

Keeping Afridi fit over the long term could be a challenge, according to one of his great forebears among left-arm quicks for Pakistan.

“I first saw him in Pakistan Under 19 and I knew then he would be a world-beater as far as fast bowling is concerned,” Wasim Akram said.

“The only thing is he has this problem here [points at his elbow], maybe tennis elbow. His bowling arm is always taped everywhere.

“They say as long as he bowls every day, they pain is not there. But eventually, if he doesn’t treat it, it will go worse. That is where I am worried about him, but otherwise, what a find.”

Aside from physical wear, Akram believes Afridi will bear some mental scars from the way the T20 World Cup finished in Dubai last year.

Having lit up the competition like nobody else, Pakistan saw their hopes of a place in the final slip from their grasp when Matthew Wade attacked Afridi decisively in a run chase. Akram is sure he will be stronger for the experience, though.

“Sometimes it can be a blessing in disguise to go through this as a bowler,” Akram said.

“It takes something like that for Afridi to understand he needs that slower ball [mimes a leg-cutter action] not just the one that comes into the left-hander.

“If this slower ball goes across, there is a chance it will go up in the air.

“Also, Shaheen’s field placing, especially in that over against Wade, was wrong.

“Whenever you do a team meeting, you say: ‘OK, Matthew Wade, his go-to shot is this one [he shadows a scoop shot], so we need fine leg back’. He might hit you for six there as well, but he will be in two minds’. Shaheen had fine leg and third man both up in the circle.

“With experience, he will learn.”