Shahid Afridi versus Shadab Khan

[FreePalestine]

Who will have the more impressive stats at the end of Shadab’s career?

Who will be regarded as the better cricketer?

Test; ODI; T20

 

[HappyWarsFan]

LOL at Shadab being compared to Afridi )

Enough internet for me today.

 

[hoshiarpurexpress]

LOL.. Afridi is an all time LOI legend.. A genuine match winner. He has won matches single handedly.. solely on based of his batting or bowling.
Shadab if he could do what half of what Afridi did in LOIs.. would be considered a Pakistani Great.

 

[Caved12]

lol, Shahid Afridi was a disgusting player, who only played for himself.

 

[Rana]

Shadab has more potential with the ball in all formats. But peak Afridi the bowler was as deadly as they came in T20i and ODIs

Batting wise. Shadab will end up with better and more respectable stats. But he may never play even 1/10th of the match winning cameo’s or knocks Afridi played throughout his career.

 

[Junaids]

It's a fascinating topic.

Shahid Afridi is the biggest waste of talent that I have ever seen. He played international cricket for 20 years, and scored 1700 Test runs at an average of 37 and took 48 Test wickets at an average of 36.

But these numbers are an abomination. He should have played Danish Kaneria's 61 Tests, which would have left him with 300 Test wickets and 4000 Test runs.

In every form of cricket, if you don't have a Shane Warne-quality spinner you might as well have a Shahid Afridi who can bat at Number 8. In Asia you pick a second spinner at 9, while in SENA you pick 4 quicks with him.

Shadab Khan is not as good a bowler in Asia as Yasir Shah. Never will be. But, like Shahid Afridi he can average 35-37 with the bat, while being as good a bowler as Intikhab Alam was. Plus he's the GOAT Pakistan fielder.

I think Pakistan are incredibly lucky that they have Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan as genuine world class players now, but they also have Rohail Nazir, Haider Ali, Abdullah Shafique, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah too as players who are capable of being genuinely world class.

It's almost unheard of for a senior national team to have more than 4 or 5 world class players in it. But Pakistan could be in that position in time for the 2021-23 World Test Championship cycle.

 

[Zaz]

Shadab khan will have a greater stats when he finishes

Its a shame that afridi didnt think too much when he played

If he did he wouldve been a 30\30 player n wouldve won pakistan a lot of those matches he made them lose

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

Shadab will triumph Lala with the bat, but bowling wise Afridi will probably remain the better one.

Also saying this because I feel Shadab's batting has more potential than his bowling. Shadab relies a lot on his googlies which might help in T20 cricket, but will lose its effectiveness in the longer formats. Afridi had a good leg break as well the reason he remained effective in every format with the ball.

Shadab has it in him to become a genuine nr 6 in every format of the game. The coaches now also realize this the reason he is getting promoted in every tournament. He just needs to improve his batting temperament by batting hours in FC in order to become a consistent performer in the longer formats as well.

Talent alone won't get him far, he needs to be serious about his cricket and put the hard yards in.

 

[Maher96]

Shahid Khan Afridi - timeless legend!

During his peak him and Ajmal we’re a treat to watch to say we had no pacer around due to the ban to Amir at the time.

Ohh how time has passed, feels like yesterday that we were playing a ODI in Dubai.

 

[Pacy with wisdom]

Lala had unreal natural ability to the extent that he was considered a freak of nature.

Shadab doesnt have that, but can still be a serviceable cricketer with great output because he has much better game sense and grit to compensate for the lack of freakish ability.

 

[hitthestump]

People rightfully laugh at this comparison in 2020, but i'm not sure we can be confident that we haven't seen Shadab's ceiling yet. He's constantly spoken about as one of the most committed in training and has more courage than our current test captain and coach put together. Age is still on his side.

I think he could be capable of outdoing Afridi in both forms, in which case he'll be a Pakistan ATG.

 

[sweep_shot]

Afridi is an ODI legend. Shadab hasn't done anything significant.

Afridi has 395 ODI wickets. Let Shadab get close that figure first.

 

[aloo paratha]

Passing Afridi is quite a low bar. He has the potential to be far better,

 

[pratiktc]

IMO Shadab should concentrate on becoming pure top 6 batsman in all formats. He has ability for it.
Bowling should just be second skill and part time focus

 

[Junaids]

Shadab Khan is only 21 years old and is already only 34 lifetime Test wickets behind Shahid Afridi.

 

[Hitman]

Shaid Afridi should never be the benchmark for any young player.

 

[FreePalestine]

I guess someone will have to bump this one in 15 years time.

 

[MMHS]

It's a fascinating topic.

Shahid Afridi is the biggest waste of talent that I have ever seen. He played international cricket for 20 years, and scored 1700 Test runs at an average of 37 and took 48 Test wickets at an average of 36.

But these numbers are an abomination. He should have played Danish Kaneria's 61 Tests, which would have left him with 300 Test wickets and 4000 Test runs.

In every form of cricket, if you don't have a Shane Warne-quality spinner you might as well have a Shahid Afridi who can bat at Number 8. In Asia you pick a second spinner at 9, while in SENA you pick 4 quicks with him.

Shadab Khan is not as good a bowler in Asia as Yasir Shah. Never will be. But, like Shahid Afridi he can average 35-37 with the bat, while being as good a bowler as Intikhab Alam was. Plus he's the GOAT Pakistan fielder.

I think Pakistan are incredibly lucky that they have Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan as genuine world class players now, but they also have Rohail Nazir, Haider Ali, Abdullah Shafique, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah too as players who are capable of being genuinely world class.

It's almost unheard of for a senior national team to have more than 4 or 5 world class players in it. But Pakistan could be in that position in time for the 2021-23 World Test Championship cycle.

Do you ever think before putting numbers or just take a chance that no one’ll notice your hyperbole? 300 wickets in 61 Tests means 5 wickets per Test ..... better than Warne. Add to that 4000 runs - Imran had around 3800 in 88 Tests .... So, you are basically talking about a cricketer, combination of Dennis Lillee & Mark Waugh.

And Intekhab Alam has two Test 10fors, a Test hundred as well. And he is among very few modern cricketers with that double of 15000 runs & 1500 wickets in FC cricket.

 

[Ab Fan]

Afridi. But Shadab is decent player as well and can play for Pakistan.

 

[Mamoon]

Ridiculous thread.

Afridi at 45 is still a much better cricketer than overrated specialist fielder.

 

[Thunderbolt14]

Do you ever think before putting numbers or just take a chance that no one’ll notice your hyperbole? 300 wickets in 61 Tests means 5 wickets per Test ..... better than Warne. Add to that 4000 runs - Imran had around 3800 in 88 Tests .... So, you are basically talking about a cricketer, combination of Dennis Lillee & Mark Waugh.

And Intekhab Alam has two Test 10fors, a Test hundred as well. And he is among very few modern cricketers with that double of 15000 runs & 1500 wickets in FC cricket.

I believe he meant 300 in 27+61=88 matches which is 3.4 wickets per test. (Yes it is still a high number).

That is also 45 runs per test for 4000 in 88 matches, or roughly 27 average (if we factor in 15 or so not outs). His current test batting average is 36.5.

Therefore, after 88 matches, Afridi could very well have reached 300 wickets and 4000 runs.

I don’t think there is too much exaggeration.

 

[MMHS]

I believe he meant 300 in 27+61=88 matches which is 3.4 wickets per test. (Yes it is still a high number).

That is also 45 runs per test for 4000 in 88 matches, or roughly 27 average (if we factor in 15 or so not outs). His current test batting average is 36.5.

Therefore, after 88 matches, Afridi could very well have reached 300 wickets and 4000 runs.

I don’t think there is too much exaggeration.

I have calculated that one also - and that number of 88 Test is a significant one ... some Imran Khan Niazi played 88 Tests for 3807 runs & 362 wickets, therefore 300 wickets & 4000 runs in 88 Test might not be that easy after all.

However, there are few Tests that Afridi & Danish played together.... therefore that 61 isn’t a mutually exclusive number.

 

[shamaan]

Afridi hands down even thou I love shadab

 

[MenInG]

Look at Shadab today, 42 runs, 2 wickets, batting getting better, bowling was fine for T20Is

Great signs for Pakistan

 

[MMHS]

I have calculated that one also - and that number of 88 Test is a significant one ... some Imran Khan Niazi played 88 Tests for 3807 runs & 362 wickets, therefore 300 wickets & 4000 runs in 88 Test might not be that easy after all.

However, there are few Tests that Afridi & Danish played together.... therefore that 61 isnÂ’t a mutually exclusive number.

[MENTION=151892]Thunderbolt14[/MENTION]

Just to add, Afridi has 48 wickets in 27 Tests and 1716 runs - that sets a target of 252 wickets & 2284 runs in 61 Tests.

For a little comparison, a guy named Richi Benaud played 63 Tests for Australia and scored 2201 runs & took 248 wickets .......

You know, I have crunched so much cricket data in my life that whenever some obnoxious figures pop up, even in someone’s wet dreams .... a trigger pops up inside me some how - this needs to be fixed. Trust me, at first glance of the hyperbole - the two figures that instantly came to my mind that there must be something wrong - some DK Lillee took 355 wicket in 70 Tests and some Mark Waugh reached 8K Test runs on his 127th or 128th Test .... Afridi was good, but not sure if he was that talented.

Having said that, it’s almost blasphemous to compare the two used in OP .... unless he is comparing Afiridi of 2020 .... this weekend, I’ll definitely write something on it - that little respect Afridi deserves.

 

[Thunderbolt14]

[MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] no doubt it’s hyperbolic, but I suppose the very premise is “what if” - all the posts on “raw talent” are something like this, similarly Umar Akmal could have been better than AB de Villiers. At the end of the day, there is no grounding and it comes down to the player’s attitude to improve which is abysmal.

Same goes for Afridi - if he was a little more concerned for his cricket, could have done a lot more there is no doubt. If not 300/4000 then maybe 250/3000 or if not then 200/2500 but no doubt very very respectable in 88 matches. But truth is, he didn’t, so it remains a what if.

 

[MMHS]

[MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] no doubt it’s hyperbolic, but I suppose the very premise is “what if” - all the posts on “raw talent” are something like this, similarly Umar Akmal could have been better than AB de Villiers. At the end of the day, there is no grounding and it comes down to the player’s attitude to improve which is abysmal.

Same goes for Afridi - if he was a little more concerned for his cricket, could have done a lot more there is no doubt. If not 300/4000 then maybe 250/3000 or if not then 200/2500 but no doubt very very respectable in 88 matches. But truth is, he didn’t, so it remains a what if.

If he was interested, and that's a big IF, for a career almost lasting into 4 decades, he could have played say 127 Tests and ended up with may be 5000+ runs and 350 wickets - that's another 100 Tests, 300 wickets and around 3500 runs. He later improved his bowling so I give him 3 wickets/Test from less that 2/Test for a period of 100 Tests - may be I can stress it to 7000+ runs and 400+ wickets in 150+ Tests if he was really that devoted to Test cricket, add around 150 catches as well; still a decent to very good record.

But "what if" also has limit and when you cross that, it's insult to other cricketers and the cricket intelligence of the posters here.

 

[waheed_sofi]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WwcX-9SzuW8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

PCB has uploaded a video "Reminisce of Pindi Stadium memories"
Here, Shadab is saying that his first memory is Azhar Mahmood's debut Century match which was played in Oct 1997.
Shadab's DOB written is Oct 1998.
How come he remember that match.
Even if he is born in 1998, his first memories of cricket would be around early 2002-03s.
I may have interpreted this video wrongly.
But i think Shadab's correct age is around 26-27.
Any thoughts?

 

[waheed_sofi]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WwcX-9SzuW8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

PCB has uploaded a video "Reminisce of Pindi Stadium memories"
Here, Shadab is saying that his first memory is Azhar Mahmood's debut Century match which was played in Oct 1997.
Shadab's DOB written is Oct 1998.
How come he remember that match.
Even if he is born in 1998, his first memories of cricket would be around early 2002-03s.
I may have interpreted this video wrongly.
But i think Shadab's correct age is around 26-27.
Any thoughts?

Other thing is, there is hardly any highlights of that match.
The only memory of that match would be if he had seen that match live, which means he would around 5-6 years old at that time.

 

[Nadeemp]

Afridi is a waste of space. He was a terrible batsman. Good bowler. Had the talent but no brain. So many who came after him tried to use him as their role model. One positive I would say about Afridi was he made cricket very popular in NWFP. That’s his biggest contribution

 

[Hitman]

Afridi is a waste of space. He was a terrible batsman. Good bowler. Had the talent but no brain. So many who came after him tried to use him as their role model. One positive I would say about Afridi was he made cricket very popular in NWFP. That’s his biggest contribution

His bowling averages suggest he was a below average bowler.