In fact, last year turned out to be the best for him in his short-yet-impressive cricket career. The left-arm pacer shined with the ball across the formats and was recently awarded with the Men’s Cricketer of the Year by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Shaheen’s biggest strength has been his superior accuracy and ability to swing the ball both ways with a scintillating pace. He has already played against some high-quality batters and proved his credentials by puzzling out the best in the business.
But who will be those three batters that Shaheen would see in his dream hat-trick? Well, the 21-year-old revealed his choices and went with the Indian batsmen. During ’25 questions’ on ESPNCricinfo, Afridi picked India’s white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma, opening batter KL Rahul and global superstar Virat Kohli as his dream hat-trick.
Notably, Shaheen proved his dexterity when arch-rivals India and Pakistan met in their 2021 T20 World Cup opening game. The left-armer wreaked havoc in the game and completely dominated the proceedings against the top-quality side.
Shaheen had bowled a perfect in-swinging yorker to get rid of Rohit for a golden duck in the very first over of India’s innings. The Khyber Agency lad then dismissed Rahul in his second over and finished his powerplay bowling with a figure of 2/19.
Shaheen returned in the penultimate over of India’s innings and removed Kohli for 57 off 49 to complete his three-wicket haul for 31, which helped Pakistan restrict India to 151/7. In reply, Pakistan chased down the target quite comfortably, thanks to an unbeaten opening stand between Mohammed Rizwan (79* off 55) and captain Babar Azam (68* off 52). Pakistan won the contest by 10 wickets to register their first-ever win against India in any World Cup meeting.
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