Pakistan cricket team’s white-ball Head Coach Gary Kirsten has raised concerns about the workload of the star pacer Shaheen Afridi.
Pakistan have a busy schedule ahead of them before the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. Referring to the huge workload of the team’s fast bowlers, Kirsten gave his take on Afridi while performing commentary duties during the 2024 Champions One-Day Cup.
“Fast bowlers are always under immense pressure to deliver and win games. When we look at our key resources, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah have carried the bulk of the workload for Pakistan across all formats,” he said.
Gary Kirsten claimed this to be an ‘alarming’ situation as the team had to heavily bank upon Shaheen Afridi to step up in the majority of Pakistan’s matches. Kirsten emphasized how the team would likely wear their star pacer down if this continued and the workload management is not improved in the future.
“I saw a stat the other day that Shaheen has bowled three times more overs than any other fast bowler in the world over the last 18 months. That’s alarming – you’re bound to wear him down eventually,” he added.
Pakistan cricket team was recently criticised by many for their failure in Test and limited-overs cricket. They recently lost a Test series at home 0-2 to Bangladesh. Shaheen Afridi was not included in the squad for the second match in Rawalpindi. Pakistan’s red-ball coach Jason Gillespie voiced that the pacer did not fit into the best combination they prepared for the second fixture.
As per multiple outlets, he said, “We had a good conversation with him and he fully understands we are looking at the best combination for this game and the last few weeks have been interesting for him with fatherhood and other things, this break will allow him to spend time with his family.”
Speaking of Pakistan’s schedule, they are set to host England and the West Indies in Tests before the ICC Champions Trophy. They are also expected to compete in two more Tests against South Africa and a limited-overs tour against Zimbabwe and Australia. Pakistan’s upcoming England series begins next month on October 7. The opening fixture of the three-match series will be played at the Multan Cricket Ground.
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