Pakistan fast-bowling spearhead Shaheen Afridi started his The Hundred 2023 campaign in style with two booming in-swinging yorkers. After Welsh Fire’s nine-run win over Manchester Originals, Afridi was in a conversation with cricketers-turned-commentators Stuart Broad and Dinesh Karthik. The Indian wicketkeeper-batter was standing between Afridi and Broad. A couple of days later, Karthik posted a video of the conversation tagging England Test opener Ben Duckett with the caption reading, “I feel you Ben Duckett. #heightissues.”
Duckett had earlier posted a video of himself during England’s national anthem. He was standing between Broad and Zak Crawley. As a result, when the camera panned towards the English team, Duckett’s face was not visible as Broad, and Crawley are way taller than the left-handed batter. He even posted it as a story on Instagram.
Broad recently joined the commentary panel of the Hundred competition after his retirement from international cricket. He joined Karthik who was also a part of the Ashes 2023 commentary panel.
During the conversation, Afridi explained how bowling long spells in Test cricket has helped him the shorter formats of the game. He took two wickets in the rain-curtailed affair. Broad also said that the left-arm pacer is one of his favourite bowlers to watch.
“Shaheen Shah Afridi is one of my favourite bowlers to watch in the world,” Broad was quoted as saying to Sky Sports.
“He has got such a great presence about him when he runs in, and I love bowlers run in with energy and vibrancy to their run up.
“He has got such a natural skill – the way that ball swings back into the right-handers is such a pleasure to watch.
“And he represented the Notts Outlaws this summer, which is close to my heart. He’s one of the bowlers I admire hugely, and I want to see him do well,” he added.
On the other hand, Karthik called Afridi's teammate Haris Rauf as one of the best bowlers in world cricket right now.
"Few years ago he was playing tennis ball cricket. Gets picked up by the Qalandars, becomes a part of their team, and academy and then goes on to play the league and then has obviously gone on to do so well for Pakistan. He is arguably one of the better white ball bowlers going around in world cricket now, especially at the death," Karthik said.
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