Afridi could have scored 5,000+ runs and taken 350+ Test wickets. Unfortunately, the 37 ball hundred in his second game shaped and defined his career.
A bowling all-rounder suddenly became a dasher and was swiftly promoted to open the innings. The focus shifted from his bowling to his slogging and people started to expect miracles whenever he came to bat.
He started playing for his fans instead of focusing on his core skill and who he really was a cricketer. Throughout his career, he tried to become someone else.
The 37 ball hundred made him a superstar overnight but it also inhibited his potential as a Test cricketer.
Once the T20 cricket era arrived in 2004-2005, it was obvious that he was going to give up on Test cricket in spite of his purple patch in 2005-2006 where he scored three hundreds.
The embarrassing episode of returning to Test cricket after a 4 year hiatus and then running away after 1 Test, that too as temporary captain, was a stunt that should have never happened.
It was completely idiotic even for his standards.
IMO, Afridi didn't have the patience, focus or ability to become a great Test player.
The problem in my opinion is, that EVERY SINGLE captain, coach, team manager, selector, board chairman, team doctor, maalshi, chaiwala etc, Afridi played under, had one uniform (and uncalled for) advice for him.
"Slow khelo, Aaram sey khelo, khayal sey khelo, daykh kar khelo".
This is NOT what Afridi was.
He was a player who should've gotten the backing of his captain to play his natural game regardless of the opposition, venue and game situation.
If I was the captain over Afridi, I would give a tap on his back and would say "Go get 'em" every time he would go out to bat, REGARDLESS of the match situation. Just like Bart would say to Danny in the movie "Unleashed".
As being the recipient of most number of man of the match awards with ordinary career figures, it's a clear indication that Afridi was an impact player.
And you should NEVER try to mold an impact player, and always support him to play his natural game. You either don't select him in the playing squad, or if you did, then don't mess with his brain.
Afridi was a hit or miss player, and he mostly missed it.
But if he had the full backing of his captains, he would probably had more confidence and had done better.
His captains didn't realize that you have 10 other players in the team that you could lecture all you wanted to play slow and play with caution but
not with Afridi. Afridi was a totally different specie that required special handling, but unfortunately none of the captains knew how to? it was all about slow khelo, ahista khelo, aram sey khelo.
</p>— Shahid Afridi (@SAfridiOfficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/SAfridiOfficial/status/1364473225145511938?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
