Shaheen Shah Afridi with Babar Azam
Shaheen Shah Afridi with Babar Azam (Credits: Twitter)

Pakistan will be without their pace spearhead Shaheen Afridi for the upcoming Asia Cup 2022. The left-arm pacer has been ruled out of the competition due to the knee injury that he had sustained last month. Afridi had injured his knee while making a diving effort on the field during the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. He has been on the sidelines since then.

The young pacer was expected to recover in time for the Asia Cup but the team doctors have advised him more rest. He is also ruled out of the seven-match T20I series at home against England in September. Shaheen is now facing a race against time to be fit for the T20 World Cup, starting October, after being advised “four-six weeks rest” by the PCB’s medical advisory committee.

Shaheen Afridi (Image Credit: Twitter)
Shaheen Afridi (Image Credit: Twitter)

Shaheen Afridi’s record against India:

Following the news of Shaheen Afridi’s injury, former Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis caused quite a stir on the social media. The former captain took to Twitter to take a sly dig at Team India by saying that Afridi’s injury would be a big relief for Indian top-order batsmen as he expressed his disappointment over the injury setback to his country.

India and Pakistan are set to open their Asia Cup 2022 campaign by locking horns against each other on August 28, a day after the competition begins. Coming to Waqar’s tweet, he has been facing backlash from the Indian cricket community for his distasteful tweet. So as Waqar faces the backslash on Twitter, we are taking a look at Afridi’s record against India.

The 22-year old has played just two matches against India so far – one ODI and one T20I. The ODI appearance against India came in 2018 during the Asia Cup and India’s top-order had taken him to the cleaners. Openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma scored centuries as India inflicted a nine-wicket defeat on their arch-rivals. As far as Shaheen is concerned, he opened the bowling with another left-arm pacer Mohammad Amir and had a forgettable outing.

Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma (Credits: Twitter)

In 6 overs, he gave away 42 runs and could not pick a single wicket. In his short spell, he was hit for 6 fours and 2 sixes by India’s top-order. His second appearance against India came last year during the T20 World Cup where he managed to leave a mark. He dismissed Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul cheaply and later accounted for Virat Kohli. Overall, he gave away 31 runs in his 4 overs while picking up 3 wickets.