Pakistan's left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi, who was dropped from home Test series against England earlier this year, wasn't named in Test squad for South Africa tour. Pakistan team's white-ball head coach and selector Aqib Javed said that Afridi was rested to managed his workload ahead of ICC Champions Trophy 2025. However, as per reports, Afridi requested that he wants to be left out of the Test series against South Africa and West Indies. A day after the two-wicket defeat against South Africa, Afridi made his debut in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
How Afridi bowled on his BPL debut
In the BPL 2024 opener at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka, Fortune Barishal's Afridi remained wicketless against Durbar Rajashahi. The left-arm pacer started off well with three consecutive dots to Mohammad Haris. He did not concede a boundary in his first over. In the third over of the innings, Haris hit him for a six over deep mid-wicket. In the same over, Anamul Haque hit a six as well. Tamim Iqbal took him off the attack after his second over.
Rajshahi lost their openers Haris and Jishan Alam to Kyle Mayers in consecutive overs. Skipper Haque and Yasir Ali shared a 140-run stand for the third wicket. Haque departed after scoring 65 runs from 51 balls including four fours and five sixes. He was dismissed by Faheem Ashraf.
Afridi bowled one over in the middle overs. Yasir hit a boundary in the 13th over of the innings. Later, he was asked to bowl the penultimate over of the innings. Zimbabwe's Ryan Burl hit him for a four towards fine leg. In his full quota of four overs, he conceded 33 runs but remained wicketless. Yasir remained unbeaten for 94 off 47 deliveries. His knock which was studded with seven fours and eight sixes took Durbar Rajshahi to 197/3.
Afridi's form in T20I and ODI series against South Africa
The 24-year-old was in good form in the T20I and ODI series against South Africa. He bagged three wickets in the opening T20I and remained wickeless in the next. In the ODI series, he claimed seven wickets including match-winning four wickets for 47 runs in Cape Town in a winning cause.