{"id":2139,"date":"2023-09-09T06:44:07","date_gmt":"2023-09-09T06:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/pace-ace-shaheen-afridi-says-best-yet-to-come\/"},"modified":"2023-09-09T06:44:07","modified_gmt":"2023-09-09T06:44:07","slug":"pace-ace-shaheen-afridi-says-best-yet-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/pace-ace-shaheen-afridi-says-best-yet-to-come\/","title":{"rendered":"Pace ace Shaheen Afridi says \u2018best yet to come\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>Pakistan pace ace Shaheen Shah Afridi has warned his devastating spell against arch-rivals India that set the Asia Cup alight is just the start, with the World Cup only weeks away.<\/p>\n<p>The left-arm fast bowler rattled the Indian top-order in their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1773623\">Group A clash last week<\/a>, taking 4-35 \u2014 including the wickets of star batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.<\/p>\n<p>That match was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1773623\">washed out<\/a> but they meet again in Colombo on Sunday in the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup, a precursor to the 50-over World Cup that kicks off next month.<\/p>\n<p>And Shaheen told <em>AFP<\/em> there is more to come.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery match against India is special and people watch this a lot,\u201d the 23-year-old said Friday. \u201cI used to wait for this match as a fan before I played under-16 cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t say this has been my best spell so far. This is just the start and there will be many more, so the best is yet to come.\u201d With his ability to move the ball both ways, Shaheen leads one of the most potent pace attacks in the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you play all the three formats at such a young age for Pakistan and handle the new ball, people expect you to perform like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Shaheen and his fellow fast bowlers Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf have picked up 23 wickets between them in the Asia Cup so far.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know our roles with the new and old ball,\u201d Shaheen said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1774739\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cHaris is quicker than us and impacts with his pace. Naseem and I try to get early breakthroughs.\u201d The \u201ccommunication is good between us,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd that\u2019s our success.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"afridi-advice\" href=\"#afridi-advice\" class=\"heading-permalink\" aria-hidden=\"true\" title=\"Permalink\"\/>Afridi advice<\/h2>\n<p>Shaheen, who stands at 6 feet and 6 inches (1.98 metres), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1700963\">suffered a serious knee injury<\/a> last year but returned strongly in Sri Lanka in July.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s your match time that helps you improve. These Test matches against Sri Lanka recently made me improve as I bowled long spells and fielded all day,\u201d said Shaheen, who has 105 wickets in 27 Tests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo that cleared all doubts about the knee injury.\u201d Shaheen has never played cricket in India \u2014 bilateral cricket ties are frozen because of political tensions between the neighbours.<\/p>\n<p>He is keen to do well when Pakistan take on hosts Indiain the hotly anticipated World Cup match in Ahmedabad on October 14.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the foreign players who have played in the IPL (Indian Premier League), we had discussions with them. I think our Pakistan wickets or Dubai pitches will be similar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpinners will get more help, maybe. We will hit good lengths. Our team performance is going well as the number one (ODI) team. We have prepared well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shaheen is married to one of the daughters of former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, and said he speaks to the former all-rounder before every big match.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI try to pick his brains before a big game and include it in my plans as he was a big-match player,\u201d said Shaheen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe talks simply and says: \u2018Just play your cricket\u2019.\u201d A fan of legendary Pakistani left-arm fast bowler Wasim Akram, Shaheen said he keeps his focus on the field by avoiding cricket off it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t go out much and stay in my room. Just stay indoors, make green tea\u2026 and talk about anything other than cricket,\u201d he said.<br \/>\n\u201cThat keeps me relaxed. \u201c<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistan pace ace Shaheen Shah Afridi has warned his devastating spell against arch-rivals India that set the Asia Cup alight is just the start, with the World Cup only weeks away. The left-arm fast bowler rattled the Indian top-order in their Group A clash last week, taking 4-35 \u2014 including the wickets of star batters [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/09\/091132068566083.jpg?r=114109","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}