In the absence of Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf, Pakistan’s pace attack lacked both attack and pace. Looking at the match scorecard, out of the first 95 overs, Shaheen Afridi bowled only 25. However, his pace alarmingly ranged in the early 130s.

Commenting on Shaheen Afridi’s performance, former Indian coach and cricketer Ravi Shastri opined that the bowler taking all the pressure on him isn’t the right approach. His fellow bowling mate pacer Khurram Shahzad was seen bowling in the mid-120s, whereas Faheem Ashraf’s average speed was a casual 127 kph.

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“I think Shaheen Afridi’s real problem is the pressure of being the spearhead of this Pakistan attack. Without much real support at the other end, when it comes to pace. When you talk of Pakistan and their fast-bowling attack, there is a genuine pace all the time. And you don’t have one bowler here who is even close to 140. So that puts immense pressure even on someone like Shaheen,” Hindustan Times quoted Shastri as saying while on commentary.

Pakistan vs Australia first test:

In the first test, Australia managed to put 487 runs on the scoreboard, all thanks to David Warner’s 164 and Mitchell Marsh’s 90. Apart from this, Usman Khawaja made an important 41 runs, while Travis Head scored 50 runs.

For Pakistan, Aamer Jamal picked 6 wickets, Khurram Shahzad took 2 wickets and Shaheen Shah Afridi and Faheem Ashraf picked one each.

Chasing 488, Pakistan scored 132 runs after losing 2 wickets in 53 overs on Day 2. Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon picked one wicket each.

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Published: 15 Dec 2023, 07:10 PM IST