Afridi all set to return in time for the T20 World Cup for Pakistan having begun rehab and he will start bowling from next week.
Shaheen Afridi is expected to play in the T20 World Cup next month after it was determined that the knee injury that ended his BBL career was not as serious as earlier ones that kept him out of action for a while.
At the beginning of the year, Afridi was called back from Australia after suffering a right knee injury while playing for the Brisbane Heat. The PCB was eager to start his recuperation right away because the T20 World Cup was approaching.
That appears to be going well and Afridi expects to return to bowling next week. “My rehab is ongoing, with the PCB team monitoring it,” Afridi told reporters at a talent hunt launch event for Lahore Qalandars. “I’m doing gym work and working on my batting at the moment. I’ll start bowling from next week.
“It’s not as serious as it was last time. There’s a bit of swelling on the bone. The MRI report wasn’t that [concerning], this might not take a month. It’s more like a week.”
Afridi was alluding to more severe prior injuries to the same knee. While fielding during a Test match in Sri Lanka in 2022, he suffered a posterior cruciate ligament damage to his right knee.
After a relatively disastrous rehabilitation process, that kept him out of action for almost six months, starting early in the T20 World Cup that year. He made a comeback for the latter part of Pakistan’s campaign, but he sustained another injury at a pivotal point in the final and was unable to bowl as England won.
“There’s always ups and downs in any sport,” Afridi said. “But the aim is to learn from everywhere so that when you play for your country, you’ve improved. Our focus was that we see how we can improve when it comes to playing for our country, what errors can we rectify, what good things we can continue with. It’s not necessary that you go there and take five wickets every game or score a 50 or 100 in every game. Babar is also human. Everyone is trying to improve.
“We’ve played a lot of good cricket over the last year,” said Afridi, who was appointed the ODI captain last year. “Anytime you go to a country before a tournament and play some games there, it helps the players and I hope it does in this case also.”