A loss and two slogs meant he re-retired immediately after. He came back, in inimitable fashion, for one Test only, as captain no less in 2010. But mostly, anywhere in the order, consistency has been missing.ĭespite a healthy Test career, he gave up on the format in 2006, pre-empting men such as Andrew Flintoff, to maximise fully a limited-overs career. His career strike rates are nearly unmatched. Often spectacular results are at hand he owns, for example, two of the fastest ODI hundreds, including the fastest one ever in his first innings ever at the age of 16. He is a compulsive basher, literally unable to control his urges to slog every ball that comes his way, and not much of it is classical. He fairly hustles through overs, which in limited-over formats is a weapon in itself and the package is dangerous.īut forever associated with him will be his madcap batting, the prospect of which is a crowd-puller the world over. All come with the threat of considerable, late drift.

Variety is his calling and as well as a traditional leg-break, he has two googlies, a conventional offie and a lethal faster one, though this is increasingly rare. To say he is an allrounder is to say Albert Einstein was a scientist it tells a criminally bare story.įor a start, the slant of his all-round skills only became clear ten years into his career he is a leg-spinning allrounder. Of Shahid Afridi it can safely be said that cricket never has and never will see another like him.

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