Shaheen Afridi, Pakistan pace spearhead, was slammed on social media by Men in Green fans for his ill-time and absurd workload comment on legends Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.
Shaheen Afridi, Pakistan's premier fast bowler, has found himself in the spotlight after making a veiled dig at Gary Kirsten's comments about his workload management.
Kirsten, Pakistan's white-ball head coach, recently raised worry, observing that Afridi had bowled three times as many overs as any other fast bowler in the world in the previous 18 months.
"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. 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," Kirsten had earlier said.
Recently, during an interview, Shaheen Afridi rebuked Gary Kirsten’s comment about workload issues and brought in Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis in his statement.
"First of all, if you are saying that I have bowled the most in the world (among bowlers in Test cricket)… but if you look in the past, all our legends bowlers Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, at that time there was no workload issue,” Shaheen Afridi told Samaa TV.
"I don't know why we have made it a big topic over the last year that there is workload, players are getting injured. We are considering it more important. It depends individually on the players, and how they play in particular formats. You need to be mentally fit and strong on how to react in different circumstances.
It's a small period where you need support from the management and close ones, who need to give you positive messages. I don't know about the workload, it isn't that much but I feel that everyone should enjoy regardless of the format," he added.
However, fans didn’t agree with Shaheen Afridi’s statement about workload issues during Wasim and Waqar’s time. They pointed out that both the legendary bowlers didn’t have issues of dip in their pace throughout their careers despite bowling long spells in Tests and ODIs.
Some fans highlighted the dip in Shaheen’s pace, from 150 km/h to around 128 km/h, questioning his claims about workload not being an issue.
Here are some fan posts slamming Shaheen Afridi for his comment:
