Mohammad Amir Shares His Take on Shaheen Afridi's Loss of Form

Former Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir believes Shaheen Shah Afridi's recent dip in form is mainly due to poor workload management. He said the left-arm pacer has been overworked in all formats since the early stage of his career, which has now started to affect his performances.

Amir made these comments after Shaheen was left out of Pakistan's Test squad for the ongoing West Indies series. His exclusion has once again raised questions about the left-arm pacer's current form and fitness.

Shaheen Afridi was once considered the leader of Pakistan's bowling attack in all three formats. However, things have become difficult for him in Test cricket since returning from a serious knee injury in 2023.

Since his comeback, the left-arm pacer has taken only 27 wickets in 16 Test innings at an average of 40.11 and a strike rate of 67.6.

While speaking in an online podcast, Amir said he warned about this scenario a few years ago, however, no one paid attention to his advice. He once again reiterated that fast bowlers cannot survive long in international cricket if their workload is not managed smartly by the management.

“If you go on Google or YouTube, you can watch the video. I gave an interview in 2020 or 2021 about Shaheen Afridi because these things happened with me. I told the media that you guys keep playing Shaheen Afridi; the time will come when he will struggle.” said Mohammad Amir.

Amir further said that the fitness of Shaheen is clearly looking down, even though he is still in the early stages of his career.

“He will struggle with the pace, with the consistency, with fitness, everything. And now you can see he’s struggling by far. He’s still young; he should be on top, but he’s struggling. So there is something wrong. And the main thing is workload management. That’s the main problem,” said Mohammad Amir.