Super Shaheen: Afridi’s month to remember
BY THE NUMBERS
Two Tests
18 wickets at 11.27. Best figures of 6/54.
Top of the charts against West Indies
It was Shaheen Afridi first, daylight, and then second on the wicket-takers list in Pakistan’s two-Test series against West Indies. Given the calibre of bowlers involved in the series, that is saying something.
Afridi took 18 wickets across the two Tests at just 11.27 runs apiece. West Indies young gun Jayden Seales (11 wickets at 17.09) was the only other bowler to take 10 wickets in the series.
Afridi’s average of 11.27 was 5.82 better than the next best in the series – Jason Holder took eight wickets at 16.87 – while his strike rate of 24.5 was only rivalled by Seales’ 27 with no one else striking at better than 30 deliveries per dismissal.
Unsurprisingly, he took out Player of the Series honours. It is the first time he has taken out Player of the Series honours.
A career-best haul in West Indies’ first innings 👏
— ICC (@ICC) August 24, 2021
What’s Shaheen Afridi got up his sleeves for their second?
Day 4 report 👉 https://t.co/Y6mTV2ywF8#WIvPAK #WTC23 pic.twitter.com/GQ2so6OAGi
A 15-year best for a Pakistan quick
Afridi shone in the first Test of the series and can consider himself unlucky to have finished on the losing side. The seamer took eight wickets for the match, including four in each innings but could not prevent the West Indies from winning the match by one wicket.
He stepped things up in the second Test to help Pakistan level the series, pairing a six-wicket haul in the first innings with four in the second as the tourists winning by 109 runs. With that, he collected his first 10-wicket haul in a Test.
His match figures of 10/94 are the best by a Pakistani quick sine Mohammad Asif took 11/71 against Sri Lanka in 2006.
Into the ICC top 10
Heading into the tour of the Caribbean, Afridi sat 22nd on the MRF Tyres ICC Test bowling rankings. That was the highest he had ever been ranked.
He rocketed up four spots after the first Test as his rating climbed from 632 to 699.
He was nowhere near done there, however, picking up another 84 rating points in the second Test to climb to eight on the rankings, entering the top 10 for the first time ever.
He is now knocking on the door of a spot in the top five, with James Anderson just 30 points away.