Pakistani Legend Shahid Afridi

No Pakistani cricketer was as attractive, crowd pleasing, enigmatic and charismatic as Shahid Khan Afridi. This Pakistani legend in only his second one day international scored the fastest century off only 37 deliveries against Sri Lanka in a four nation ODI tournament in Nairobi,Kenya in 1996. This record was a world record for many years in One Day International cricket until it was beaten by Corey Anderson of New Zealand against a weak West Indies team. Shahid Afridi was not only a very hard hitting batsman but a very skilful spin bowler too. As a bowler Shahid Afridi had a great leg break, a very effective googly, a top spinner and a quicker delivery which used to surprise many great batsmen. Shahid Afridi had all those variations as a leg spin bowler.

The tournament which really made Shahid Afridi a hero was the Carlton and United Series in Australia in 1996/1997. Shahid Afridi proved himself to be a match winning all rounder in that tournament making Man of the match performances in the finals of that tournament against West Indies. Shahid Afridi's clean bowled of Greg Blewett in a match against Australia in that tournament in Adelaide of a fast inswinging delivery brought him instant fame and was very memorable indeed. Pakistan's triumph in that tournament was Pakistan's only victory in so many triangular World Series Cup tournaments in Australia and Shahid Afridi played a key role in that victorious tournament for Pakistan. Wasim Akram was Pakistan's captain in that tournament.

In test cricket Shahid Afridi who although made a very successful test debut against Australia and made quite a memorable performances like his knock against India of 141 in the Chennai test in 1999 never regarded himself as a test cricketer. That's the reason why he abruptly retired in test cricket in 2010. Although as an ODI cricketer and as a Twenty20 cricketer he had quite a career. In Twenty20 cricket he played a key role in Pakistan's ICC WorldTwenty20 title in 2009. In ODI cricket his consecutive sixes off Ravichandran Ashwin which won a thriller against India in Asia Cup in 2014 made him a hero in Pakistani cricket. That sixes of Afridi was a big gift for Pakistan as Pakistani rarely win against India nowadays.

In 2016 after leading Pakistan to a disastrous World Twenty20 campaign in India, Shahid Afridi retired from all forms of cricket and that was an end of an era. Shahid Afridi will always be remembered for his hard hitting batting, his style of play and for his variations in bowling which was innovative and trend setting.