Shahid Afridi seems to be quite the Twenty20 bowler. As skchai said in the comments: “Perhaps that is another aspect of his “Afridiness” - he is only effective bowling to other Afridis (not the members of his Pashtun clan, but rather players who play like him).”

Perhaps the ‘what would I do?’ approach to getting inside the batsman’s head is a major factor in his success - he took 3-18 as Pakistan beat Sri Lanka yesterday.

There’s also his unique bowling style. The shorter the format, the weirder the bowling required it seems. That seems to be the general consensus in international cricket. One over to go? ‘Bowl something weird,’ they all shout. ‘That’ll surprise them’.

80mph leg breaks are pretty weird.

We’re still siding with Pakistan as our tip for the tournament. A limp performance against India has been offset by a realisation. Pakistan’s plethora of all-rounders means they can afford to pick a specialist batsman to bat at eight. Yesterday it was Misbah-ul-Haq who’s got the rare distinction of having scored a Twenty20 hundred. Handy.

Tags: Pakistan, Shahid Afridi by King Cricket
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Because the Twenty20 World Cup is Shahid Afridi’s, surely.

Against Scotland yesterday, he hit 22 off seven balls, which is actually useful in Twenty20 cricket and then took 4-19, which is useful in any form of cricket.

We originally thought that Twenty20 cricket wouldn’t show Afridi in his best light. Indeed we still do. The whole point of Shahid Afridi - and he might disagree with us on this - is that he plays in that ludicrous manner whatever the form of the game and whatever the match situation.

In Twenty20, with everyone else playing the same way, Shahid Afridi’s essential Shahid Afridiness is diluted. In Test cricket he stands alone. In Twenty20 he’s less of a one-off.

On the other hand, who in world cricket has had more practice playing this way than Shahid Afridi? No-one. Because Shahid Afridi’s been using Test cricket and conventional one-day internationals as net practice for the last ten years.

We’re backing Pakistan (as well as England) in this tournament. Why? Because of their consistency and reliability, that’s why. No, it’s actually because we think the Pakistanis have grown up with this kind of cricket and might therefore have a slight advantage.

Shahid Afridi comes from the great Pakistani tape ball tradition, where you try and slog a tennis ball, which has been semi-taped for added weight and potential swing, for as many runs as possible in as short a time as possible and the only way to stop a batsman is to get him out. Perfect preparation for Twenty20 cricket.

Tags: Pakistan, Shahid Afridi by King Cricket
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