Shahid Afridi is now the third most used bowler ever for Pakistan in One Day Internationals. Following is the list of Pak bowlers and the number of bowls they have thrown.
1. Wasim Akram: 18186 balls, 502 wickets, 36.22 strike rate
2. Waqar Younis: 12698 b, 416 w, 30.52 sr
3. Shahid Afridi: 9832 b, 211 w, 46.59 sr
4. Abdul Razzak: 9797 b, 246 w, 39.8 sr
5. Saqlain Mushtaq: 8770 b, 288 w, 30.45 sr
6. Aaqib Javed: 8012 b, 182 w, 44.02 sr
7. Mushtaq Ahmed: 7543 b, 161 w, 46.85 sr
8. Imran Khan: 7461 b, 182 w, 40.99 sr
9. Shoaib Akhtar: 6498 b, 218 w, sr 29.81
10. Azhar Mahmood: 6242 b, 123 w, sr 50.74
The above statistics are valid upto and including 3rd ODI between Pakistan and India played on November 11, 2007.
We can deduce following from the list.
1. Bowlers with the best strike rates have been humiliated by fellow cricketers and cricket board. They heve been shown he door without any respect. These are following.
a. Shoaib Akhtar: 6498 b, 218 w, sr 29.81
b. Saqlain Mushtaq: 8770 b, 288 w, 30.45 sr
c.Waqar Younis: 12698 b, 416 w, 30.52 sr
Moral: In Pakistan, talented and good performers are not welcome.
2. Had Waqar allowed to play as much cricket as Wasim (he came into Pak side after Wasim but was dropped due to internal politics) he would have more wickets than Wasim. (No offence to Wasim, He was an equally great cricketer).
3. It seems that Abdul Razzak is a better bowler than Afridi as per his strike rate (we dont have his batting record available here. That may also be similar). No reason has been given by board for dropping him. Maybe he does not have adequate connections.
4. Bowler with fourth worst strike rate is nowadays bowling coach of Pakistan team (Aqib Javed). Remember, Wasim is running a garment store and we dont know what Waqar is doing. This tells of our utilization of available resources.
One surprise is Imran Khan because he played his cricket in the 70s and 80s when one day cricket was very limited. In fact in the 70s, there was less in that whole decade for Pakistan than what we have in a year now. So I guess he again stands tall among an elite group of bowlers who got a lot more opportunity during their peak cricketing form.
As far as Afridi is concerned, he is still the number one option we have today as an all rounder. Plus he could certainly be rated as the best fielder in this group of Pakistani bowlers.
If we compare the top five bowlers in this list, Shahid Afridi’s record is least imressive. His strike rate is higer than others. I know he helped Pakistan to win couple of matches but he hasn’t yer proved match winning all rounder. His batting and bowling is mediocre type and I think he didn’t take cricket seriously otherwise his performance would be mutch better.
You can read my posts on cricket in my blog http://www.mypakistan.com under KHEL category.
Owais: It should be the number of “balls” rather than “bowls”.
Look at Wasim Akram leading the pack by an enormous margin. So many recent players in the list. Longer careers or are we justing playing ODIs more often these days?