Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi, صاحبزادہ محمد شاہد خان آفرید,born 1 March 1980 in Khyber Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan), popularly known as Shahid Afridi, شاهد افریدی, is a Pakistani cricketer and current ODI and Twenty20 captain of the Pakistani national team in the international circuit. He made his ODI debut on 2 October 1996 against Kenya in Nairobi and his Test debut on 22 October 1998 against Australia at Karachi.
He is known for his aggressive batting style, and currently holds the highest career strike rate in the history of international cricket. He also holds the record for the fastest one day century which he made in his debut innings in his second one day international, as well as scoring 32 runs in a single over, the second highest scoring over ever in an ODI. He also holds the distinction of having hit the most number of sixes in the history of One Day International cricket. In a survey taken in 2007, Afridi was named as the most popular cricketer in Pakistan.
Afridi started his ascendence to the captaincy in June 2009 when he took over from Younus Khan after that he was handed the ODI captaincy for the 2010 Asia Cup. In his first match as ODI captain against Sri Lanka he scored a century however Pakistan still lost by 16 runs. He then also took over the test captaincy but resigned after one test-match in charge citing lack of form and ability to play test cricket. He captained Pakistan in the following limited overs series against England and South Africa. Afridi after taking the captaincy has been publicly fighting with the Pakistan Cricket Board over who has the say in selection. Afridi and coach Waqar Younis criticsed the fact that they were not consulted among the selection of the team for the October ODI series. Afridi became much happier with the selection when he was consulted for the 30-man world cup squad and the squad for the New Zealand series.
Afridi is from the Afridi tribe of the Khyber Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas near the Afghan Border and hails from a Pashtun family. He is married to his maternal cousin, Nadia, with whom he has two daughters, Aqsa and Ansha.
International career
An innings-by-innings breakdown of Afridi's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).
In October 1996 at the age of sixteen he was brought into the ODI team as a leg spinner as a replacement for the injured Mushtaq Ahmed. He then gained notability as a pinch-hitter and began opening with Saeed Anwar. He holds the record for scoring the fastest century in One Day Internationals (off 37 balls), scored in only his second match and his first ODI innings. He also shares with Brian Lara the record for the third-fastest century in ODIs (off 45 balls).He also holds the record for the sixth fastest century which he made on 53 balls against Bangladesh One of Pakistan's most useful all-rounders, he has an extremely aggressive batting style, which has garnered him over 6,000 ODI runs (including a world record of 280 sixes), as well as taking over 270 wickets in ODI's and over 40 in Tests.
For various reasons, including a perception that he lacks patience in his batting, Afridi had limited opportunity in Test matches, although he currently averages in the high thirties and mid-thirties with bat and ball respectively. As it is, Afridi has featured in less than one third of the Test Matches played by Pakistan over the course of his career.[citation needed] However, he made his presence felt in the third Test against India in March 2005, scoring a quick-fire second-innings half-century and taking five wickets in the match (including Tendulkar twice) to help Pakistan to win the game and register a series draw.
It is perceived that his batting struggles on bouncy pitches. He has had success as an opener on sub-continent pitches, Afridi is often moved into the lower order as well.
Afridi was more consistent with his batting and bowling throughout 2005, starting with the tours of India and West Indies and through to the England tour. The Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer helped Afridi to reach a fuller potential by improving his shot selection and giving him free rein over his batting attitude.
In the 2007 World Twenty20, he performed poorly with the bat but brilliantly with the ball, earning the Man of the Series award, though he failed to take a wicket in the final and was out for a golden duck.But in the next ICC Twenty20 World Cup, held in 2009 Afridi performed brilliantly in the series scoring 50 runs in the semi-final and 54 in the final and leading his team to victory.
On the 30 December, Afridi claimed 4-14 in a Twenty20 International game against New Zealand resulting in him taking his 50th wicket in all Twenty20 Internationals, being the first man to do so, he ended the match with 53 wickets.
Shortly after Pakistan won the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 the captain Younis Khan announced his retirement from Twenty20 cricket the Pakistan Cricket Board subsequently announced that Shahid Afridi had taken over the Twenty20 captaincy. Shahid Afridi is Pakistan's second most successful captain in Twenty20 cricket. In March 2010 the board announced that Shahid Afridi had been appointed ODI captain in place of the sacked Mohammad Yousuf he led Pakistan in the 2010 Asia Cup and during his first three matches as ODI captain he scored two centuries against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh he finished as the tournaments highest runscorer with 384 runs from 3 matches.
On 25 May 2010, Afridi was appointed captain of the national team in all three formats, after he announced his return to Test cricket. After leading Pakistan in the Lords Test against Australia in July 2010, Afridi announced that the second Test at Headingley would be his last.
Afridi has shown his disapproval of selection matters with the board as for the tour of South Africa in October 2010 as he had not been consulted for the selection of the players nor did the team managament Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Intikhab Alam Afridi released a statement to inform the media about these incidents and the board sent Afridi a notice telling him to "keep his mouth closed"
Chief selector of the Pakistan team Mohsin Khan defended his decision and told to the media Afridi and the team management did not need to be consulted on the selection process. However former Pakistan fast-bowling great and former captain Wasim Akram stated that not consulting the captain and coach on the selection is a joke in international cricket . Due to the pressure that the Selectors and the Pakistan Cricket Board had to face they decided to add two more players (Shahzaib Hasan and Wahab Riaz) to the team as per the request of Shahid Afridi, Aaqib Javed, Waqar Younis and Intikhab Alam Mohsin then denied allegations that he was a 'dummy' selector and said that Shahzaib and Wahab were added to the squad on Afridi's request and that Younis Khan was also a request and he was added after he successfully reconciled with the Pakistan Cricket Board. The squad did however suffer a major setback as Mohammad Yousuf one of the key senior batsman suffered a hamstring injury and missed 2–3 weeks this meant that he missed the limited overs matches After playing 4 matches against South Africa the series was drawn at 2-2 however the team suffered a major setback when Zulqarnain Haider went missing and this deflated team morale and eventually Pakistan lost the match and the series 3-2. After the series Shahid Afridi and Waqar Younis were consulted on selection of the team for the series against New Zealand and the 30-man proviisonal squad for the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Despite this positive for Afridi negative continued to surround the rest of the team. When Mazhar Majeed (involved in spot-fixing with Amir, Asif and Butt) revealed that 4 more cricketers Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz and Imran Farhat were associated with him in fixing. Of the 4 two cricketers (Kamran Akmal and Imran Farhat were not selected for the NZ ODI series and Umar Akmal and Wahab Riaz were named in the original squad.) Majeed also confrimed that he approched Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Younis Khan and Saeed Ajmal but all off them refused to be affiliated with him of his fixing menace.
Worth mentioning is that the four names given above were not associated in the original scandal and that no disciplinary action have been taken against them by the sports governing body the International Cricket Council. He also stated just before the New Zealand series that he had been working on honing his batting technique and that to address Pakistan opening troubles he will open in Twenty20 Internationals in the future and that he will also consider opening in ODI's as well with Umar Akmal also being considered a possibility to open with Umar Akmal Afridi also had a big say in convincing the Pakistan Cricket Board to have Javed Miandad as the national team's batting and fielding consultant. This being because of Pakistan's recent batting and fielding woes. In the first Twenty20 against New Zealand in December 2010 Afridi opened the innings with Mohammad Hafeez and he scored a quick fire 20 of 12 balls in an innings that included 1 four and two sixes. Despite this solid start Pakistan failed to build on it as Tim Southee took a five-wicket haul including a hat trick that saw Ahmed Shehzad, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal,
Mohammad Hafeez and Abdul Razzaq fall for the addition of only five runs. This left Pakistan reeling at 64/7 before Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz scored 30 each and along with a six whacked by Shoaib Akhtar the team pushed the total to 142/9. Shoaib Akhtar took three wickets but proved expensive and Martin Guptill scored a half-cenutry to seal a five-wicket win for New Zealand.
Currently Afridi is the leading wicket taker in the Twenty20 format taking 53 wickets from 41 matches. He also became the first Twenty20 cricketer to reach 50 wickets when he had figures of 4/14 and wiped out the New Zealand tail. Afridi reached his 50th wicket on 30 December 2010 when he had Nathan McCullum trapped leg-before. Pakistan also won that match by 103 runs the biggest margin of victory between two test-playing nations.
Afridi was announced in the World Cup squad but was not named as captain. Pakistan lost the first match against New Zealand by 8-wickets, the second match got rained out and in the third Mohammad Hafeez scored a century and Afridi scored a blistering 65 from just 25 balls. The following match was a tight game but Pakistan prevailed by two-wickets thanks to three boundaries from Sohail Tanvir, the match was setup by a 93* from Misbah-ul-Haq. The fifth ODI was won for Pakistan by 43 runs courtesy of a maiden ODI-century from Ahmed Shehzad. Afridi helped in the lower order by scoring 24 and taking two crucial top order wickets to help guide Pakistan to a 43-run victory and their first ODI series win in two years
On April 12, 2006 Afridi announced a temporary retirement from Test cricket until after the 2007 World Cup so that he could concentrate on ODIs. Even then his performance in county cricket for Ireland recently had declined and he bowled better than he batted. He also claimed that the workload was too much to cope with.
However, on April 27, 2006 after much discussion with Shaharyar Khan, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Afridi reversed his decision. Despite this, Afridi was later dropped from the Test team in early August 2006 after three quick-fire innings against England. He was placed well down the batting order, away from his more usual spot in the middle-order, and displayed flamboyantly reckless strokeplay on the English pitches, leading to short but entertaining innings.
In July 2010, Afridi captained Pakistan in the first Test of the home series in Lords against Australia. He scored 31 off 15 deliveries in the first innings and 2 in the second but was dismissed succumbing to rash strokes in both the innings. After the match, he announced retirement from Test cricket again citing lack of temperament for Test cricket as the reason.
On 16 July 2010, after Pakistan's loss to Australia in the Lords Test on the fourth day, Afridi spoke to BBC Radio and informed them that he would retire from Test cricket after the second Test at Headingley. The Pakistan Cricket Board was not informed prior to his interview. While speculation arose and suspicions were cast over the timing of the unexpected announcement mid-series during an overseas tour, it appears there was no correlation of his decision with the spot-fixing controversy that engulfed the team during later stages of the tour. Afridi was officially removed from the Test squad on the England tour, but after the spot-fixing scandal saw Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Test captain Salman Butt temporarily suspended by the International Cricket Council, he stated that he might return to Test Cricket if "the team needs it".
His general style of batting is very aggressive and attack oriented and has earned him the nickname "Boom Boom Afridi" for his fastest One Day International century just in 37 balls. Moreover, out of the six fastest ODI centuries of all time, Afridi has produced three of them. As of 21 February 2010, he has an ODI strike rate of 111.65 runs per 100 balls, the highest in the game's history.
This attitude has been transferred to Test cricket as well, with Afridi scoring at a relatively high strike rate of 86.13 in Tests. He has an approach to batting that can change the tempo of a game and inspire the mood of an audience, as shown when a mass exodus of spectators occurred in Pakistan in late 2005 following his dismissal from the crease.
He hits many sixes long and high, favouring straight down the ground or over midwicket and hit the longest ever six in the history of one day internationals against Australia. His trademark shot is a cross-batted flick to the leg-side to a ball outside off stump. This explosive style has led to memorable shots, most notably the first ever 12 in power cricket in 2002, where Afridi successfully hit the roof. However, his aggressive style increases his risk of getting out and he is one of the most inconsistent batsmen in cricket. This is reflected by the fact that he is the only player to score more than 6000 ODI runs at an average under 25.
While he is renowned for his aggressive batsmanship, he is also a handy leg-spinner capable of producing a good mix of wicket taking balls. He has over 300 International wickets, most of which are from the ODI format. While his stock ball is the leg break, his armory also includes the conventional off break and a 'quicker one' which he can deliver at nearly 80 mph in the style of a medium-pacer. He bowls at a high speed for a spinner, resulting in lesser turn, and relying more on variations in speed. He occasionally sends down a bouncer to a batsman, which is very rare for a spin bowler. He has, on occasion, played in the team primarily as a bowling all-rounder as well, coming much lower down the batting order.
Records and Achievements
On 4 October 1996, playing his maiden international innings, Afridi hit the fastest One-Day century off 37 balls against Sri Lanka in Nairobi. His innings included 28 runs off one of Sanath Jayasuriya's overs, whose record he broke.
Youngest player in history to make an ODI century at just 16 years and 217 days with his 37 ball ton against Sri Lanka. It included 11 sixes and 6 fours.
Made a half-century from 26 balls and took 3 second-innings wickets in Pakistan's series-drawing Test victory against India in March 2005.
Holds the joint record with Brian Lara for the third fastest ODI century off 45 balls in April 2005 against India. This actually was the first match that witnessed the Indian cricketer-turned-commentator Ravi Shastri giving him the nickname Boom Boom Afridi.
Highest aggregate sixes scored in the 50-over game, and he the most sixes per innings record.
Scored four consecutive sixes off a Harbhajan Singh over in a Test match against India in January 2006, matching a feat that Kapil Dev achieved in 1990.
Was the first player to score 12 runs off one ball, by hitting the roof of the Millennium Stadium. This took place in a game of Power Cricket.
Holds four of the top ten fastest ODI half centuries, twice completed in 18 balls and twice in 20 balls. He has also scored a half century off just 21 balls.
Made 32 runs off a Malinga Bandara over in an ODI game at Abu Dhabi in 2007. He struck four consecutive sixes and it was the 2nd most expensive over in ODI history.
Is only the third player in ODI history to achieve the combination of 6000 runs, 100 catches and 250 wickets. The other players being Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya and South Africa's Jacques Kallis.
On 21 June 2010, batting in the fifth match of the Asia Cup against Bangladesh in Dambulla, he achieved the world record of hitting the most number of sixes in an ODI career, which was previously owned by Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka. In the same match, he scored his sixth ODI century, also the sixth fastest century in ODI Cricket coming off 53 balls. He ended at 124 off 60 balls, which became his highest ODI score. This was also his second century in the 2010 Asia Cup.
On 2 November 2010, in the UAE neutral series against South Africa, in the third ODI, Afridi broke the record for most sixes hit in all formats of the game. He beat Sanath Jayasuriya to the top spot with 353 sixes. He scored more sixes than Jayasuriya but also took less than 200 matches to equal Jayasuriya's record.
On 30 December 2010, against New Zealand in New Zealand Afridi became the first bowler to take 50 international Twenty20 wickets. He finished the match with 53 Twenty20 wickets to his name from 41 matches.
Test Centuries
In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career
Test Centuries of Shahid Afridi
Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year
141 2 India Chennai, India MA Chidambaram Stadium 1999
107 12 West Indies Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Sharjah C.A. Stadium 2002
122 18 West Indies Bridgetown, Barbados Kensington Oval 2005
103 21 India Lahore, Pakistan Gaddafi Stadium 2006
156 22 India Faisalabad, Pakistan Iqbal Stadium 2006
One Day International Centuries
In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career
One Day International Centuries of Shahid Afridi
Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year
102 2 Sri Lanka Nairobi, Kenya Nairobi Gymkhana Club 1996
109 65 India Toronto, Canada Toronto CSCC 1998
108* 146 New Zealand Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Sharjah C.A. Stadium 2002
102 204 India Kanpur, India Green Park 2005
109 294 Sri Lanka Dambulla, Sri Lanka Dambulla International Stadium 2010
124 296 Bangladesh Dambulla, Sri Lanka Dambulla International Stadium 2010
Pitch-tampering
On 21 November 2005, Shahid Afridi was banned for a Test match and two One Day Internationals for deliberately damaging the pitch in the second match of the three-Test series against England. TV cameras pictured him scraping his boots on the pitch scuffing the surface when play was held up after a gas canister exploded. Afridi later pleaded guilty to a level three breach of the ICC code of conduct relating to the spirit of the game. Inquiries were made and Afridi's antics came into view. He was investigated and banned after the day's play, along with receiving a huge amount of criticism from the cricketing world for bringing the game into disrepute.
Match referee Roshan Mahanama said: "This ban should serve as a message to players that this type of behaviour is not allowed." On this Afridi accepted his fault and said that a "senior player like me should set good examples to others because they see us to learn." His behaviour was also condemned by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Spectator incident
Afridi was charged on 8 February 2007 of bringing the game into disrepute after he was seen on camera thrusting his bat at a spectator who swore at him on his way up the steps after being dismissed. Replays seemed to show that the action was not meant to cause injury, though the spectator had to move out of the way to avoid contact. Afridi was found guilty and given a four-game ODI suspension, the minimum possible ban for such an offense, meaning that he would miss Pakistan's first two 2007 World Cup matches. The PCB and Afridi chose not to appeal the ban, despite feeling that the punishment was excessively harsh. It should be noted that the South African Cricket administrators and the spectator were both also rebuked for playing a part in the causation of the incident.
Ball tampering
On 31 January 2010, Afridi was caught on camera biting into the ball towards the end of the 5th Commonwealth Bank One Day International series in Australia, at the WACA Ground. He was immediately called by the match referee after the match was over. In his defence, he told a Pakistani TV channel that he was trying to "Smell the ball" however later Afridi pleaded guilty to ball tampering and he was banned from two Twenty20 internationals.
(source:wikipedia)
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