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Cricket Players'You would come back to me and realise I was right': Amir's ominous 2021 remark on Shaheen Afridi's situation goes viral
Mohammad Amir's remarks on Shaheen Afridi from a 2021 interview went viral after the latter was ruled out from Asia Cup 2022 due to an injury.
Ahead of the men's Asia Cup 2022, Pakistan received a massive setback as the side's leading pacer Shaheen Afridi was ruled out of the continental tournament due to an injury. Afridi had faced a knee injury last month during the first Test against Sri Lanka, and even as he travelled with the side to Netherlands despite not being named in the squad for a three-match ODI series (to be in close contact with the team's physio), Afridi failed to recover in time for the Asia Cup.
The left-arm speedster is widely regarded as one of the most lethal bowlers in world cricket, and especially in the shortest format of the game. Incidentally, Afridi had been one of the consistent members of the Pakistan side and even as calls were made by former cricketers of the side to rest him to ease workload, the team management continued with the pacer. In fact, following the confirmation of his absence from the Asia Cup, a 2021 interview of the side's star fast bowler Mohammad Amir has gone viral, where he had specifically warned Pakistan about Afridi's potential injury.
Amir had compared Pakistan's pace-bowling situation with India and Australia.
"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.
"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.
