After Wasim Akram, Inzamam-ul-Haq slams Shaheen Afridi for selfish act in PSL 2024

Former Pakistan cricketer Inzamam-ul-Haq wasn’t happy with Lahore Qalandars captain Shaheen Afridi’s decision to promote himself up the order. He said that there are other specialist batters in the team and they could’ve done the job well.

The PSL 2024 encounter between Lahore Qalandars and Quetta Gladiators was one of the most exciting games in the tournament. It got even more enthralling when Lahore skipper Shaheen Afridi promoted himself in the batting order and played a magnificent innings.

Shaheen Afridi came to bat at No.5 and brought up his aggressive best. He came out all guns blazing and slammed a magnificent century. The left-arm pacer hit a quickfire half-century off 28 balls and helped his team get in a dominating position in the game against Quetta Gladiators on Sunday (11th March).

Shaheen Afridi ended with an innings of 55 runs off 34 balls. He had a strike rate of over 161 in his innings and also slammed two fours and 4 sixes in his innings. His knock powered Lahore Qalandars to a total of 166 runs in the 20 overs.

Inzamam-ul-Haq was critical of the 91-run partnership between Abdullah Shafique (59*) and Shaheen Afridi against Quetta Gladiators. He said that the duo batted 14 overs together and should’ve taken the score to over 200 and not 166. Speaking on a Pakistan channel, he explained:

“This partnership between Abdullah Shafique and Shaheen Afridi… if you look at the scorecard, then it looks very impressive, scoring 55 off 34 balls and the other scoring 59 off 39 balls. But the scorecard doesn’t do justice to it.

They played all the overs – almost 14 – and all you could take the total to was 167, whereas it should have been 200-plus. Did anyone feel that Lahore will be able to win from here? Or will Lahore defend it?”

“Oh bhai… tez khel” – Inzamam-ul-Haq on Shaheen Afridi’s innings

Inzamam-ul-Haq further stated that Shaheen Afridi coming up the order and scoring runs is not good for the team. He stressed that with David Wiese and Sikandar Raza being there in the team, the score could’ve been different.

Inzamam-ul-Haq further lashed out at Shaheen Afridi, saying that Lahore Qalandars need to stop looking into the individual efforts as it will hamper the team’s performance. He stated:

“Shaheen coming in to bat at No. 5 but scoring at that pace is not good for the team. When you have specialists such as David Wiese and Sikandar Raza, the score could have been better. Oh bhai… tez khel (Boss, score faster). They need to take care of one big fact. If you start getting into individual efforts, the team’s cause will go for a toss.”

Lahore Qalandars failed to win the match as Quetta Gladiators chased the target with 6 wickets in hand.