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Shaheen Afridi is set to make a comeback after three months. Shaheen has recovered from knee surgery and will lead Lahore Qalandars in the upcoming season of Pakistan Super League (PSL). Afridi aggravated his knee injury while taking England’s Harry Brook’s catch in T20 World Cup 2022 final. After getting injured, he missed crucial Test series against England and New Zealand which meant that Pakistan were out of World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 final race. Ahead of his return to the field, the left-arm pacer revealed that there were times when he wanted to give up.
"There were times when I wanted to give up," Shaheen told PCB Digital. "I was working on only one muscle and it was not improving. Often during the rehabilitation sessions, I used to say to myself 'this is enough, I cannot do this anymore'.
"But then I used to watch my bowling on YouTube and see how well I had done and that motivated me and I told myself 'to push a little more' ... It is frustrating for a fast bowler to miss cricket because of an injury."
Babar Azam-led Pakistan missed their pace-bowling spearhead's services as the hosts failed to counter the Bazball approach.
"It is tough when you miss your home games because of the injury," he said. "Before our Test home season, I even missed the seven England T20Is. I was more distressed for missing the Tests, because I like Test cricket more. A bowler is measured on how he performs in Test cricket and I wanted to take wickets against England."
While Shaheen was recovering from the injury, he revealed that he stayed in touch with bowlers like Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf over phone.
"I was in touch with the boys over the phone. Naseem bowls really quick and mentally he is very sharp and understands what needs to be done. I used to speak with Haris Rauf daily. I remained in touch with our other bowlers as well, who played in the Tests.
“It [Wanting to don the Pakistan colours] came when I was watching the [Multan Test] match and our tailenders were not able to finish the game. I wanted to hit a few sixes there and finish the match for Pakistan. Also, when they [England] were scoring a lot of runs, I wanted to give my input with the ball.”
