Pakistan put up a spirited fight despite scoring little in the T20 World Cup 2022 final match at the MCG, which England won. They fervently wanted their star pacer Shaheen Afridi to bowl all of his allotted innings, but this did not occur due to an injury, and it was a point of discussion after the match.
Afridi injured his knee while attempting a running catch to knock Harry Brook down, and he was seen to be in excruciating pain.
After the collision, Shaheen went back to bowling, but he only managed to deliver one delivery—far from his best work.
After undergoing an accelerated recovery from a knee ligament injury he sustained in July, the fast bowler participated in the World Cup. His career, at the age of only 22, may be in jeopardy if he has another fright during the final, according to medical experts.
“If the injury doesn’t result in more injuries, it would take Shaheen three to four months to recover,” former Pakistan Cricket Board chief medical officer Dr Sohail Salim told Dawn.
“If the PCB’s medical board chooses to treat it through surgery, Shaheen will be out for six, seven months.”
Sohail claims that Shaheen’s anticipated absence from two significant upcoming home Test series against England and New Zealand raises questions about the efficiency of the PCB’s current medical staff.
“An inquiry should be held to determine if the PCB medical panel went wrong in their approach to treat Shaheen’s injury,” said Sohail.
Shaheen might become available again soon, but the PCB chose the pacer for the World Cup team despite the fact that he had not participated in any match practise earlier, according to Sarfraz Nawaz, a former fast bowler for Pakistan.
“You have put him in directly in the high-profile World Cup without him playing any match since July,” Sarfraz told Dawn.
“His fitness could have been better judged if he played a game before the World Cup and he shouldn’t have been selected without proving it.”
Sarfraz believed the tri-series in New Zealand ahead of the T20 showpiece was a good chance to test Shaheen.
