New Delhi: Pakistan’s lanky fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi being ruled out of the Asia Cup 2022 has drawn some serious reactions from cricket fans and players around the world. Many Pakistan fans on Twitter have expressed their disappointment on the issue and are also suggesting his replacement for the all important India vs Pakistan match scheduled on 28th August.
The name of Mohammed Amir was one of the most popular suggestion as the 30-year-old was trending all day on social media. Even Amir posted a cryptic tweet asking – “Why am I trending?”.
In the middle of all this chaos, an old interview of Amir in 2021 suddenly became a topic of discussion. In the interview, the left-arm pacer talked about the Indian pace battery.
“They (India) made a brand and they utilised it. You look at the likes of Bumrah, Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.. and others in domestic who are bowling 140+. They developed these players. Nowadays, they have different teams for different formats altogether. So, they developed products and played them according to needs.
“Here, one guy gets the lottery and then he keeps on playing in all three formats. I’m not against that, but you should have some sort of rotation policy,” Amir said in an interaction with Cricket Pakistan.
Amir then made a prediction about Afridi which has ultimately turned out to be true.
“You look at Cummins, Hazlewood, Starc. You won’t ever see them playing all matches in all formats of a series. If someone plays Tests, they won’t play the first two ODIs. If they play ODIs, they will take rest from T20Is. This is how you manage them.
“You look at Shaheen here. He just keeps on playing and playing. He is young now; the moment he crosses 26 and would have played in all three formats, you would come back to me and realise I was right,” said Amir.
