Pakistan’s young pace sensation Shaheen Shah Afridi has been named the ICC Men's Cricketer of the Year 2021 by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday (January 24).
With the honor, Afridi became the first Pakistani cricketer to win the ICC Men's Cricketer of the Year award. After winning the award, the fast bowler picked his match-winning three-wicket haul against India in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 encounter as his most memorable performance of the year.
He snared three wickets while conceding just 31 runs as he dismissed the top three batters of the Indian line-up – Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli – and played a key role in Pakistan's historic 10-wicket win over their archrivals in their first match of the T20 World Cup 2021 in Dubai.
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Afridi told the ARY news channel: “I had many good performances including five-fors in Tests. But the most memorable one for me would be the match we won against India. It was a great year for me and hopefully, you will see good performances in 2022 too.”
The 21-year-old pacer further said that he was expecting to get the wicket of Rohit early, but Rahul became his victim first, which was his most prized scalp in the T20 World Cup 2021.
He also revealed that his senior team-mate Shoaib Malik gave him advice on how to get rid of Rahul.
He recalled, “There was a little swing and we knew we could get Rohit early on but the ball that dismissed Rahul even surprised me. The ball was not swinging that much, to be honest, but I was bowling at a good pace and Malik told me to pitch it up and let the ball do something.”
Afridi continued, “Even I didn't expect the ball to do so much when it got through the defense of KL Rahul. It was a big wicket for me. It was hugely satisfying for me to also take the wicket of Kohli later on but by then he had got a half-century.”
He signed off by saying on Pakistan’s semi-final loss to Australia, “Yes I cried after Matthew Wade hit me for three sixes and we lost the match. It was heartbreaking for us as a team.”
(With PTI Inputs)
