“I’m afraid Shaheen won’t be available for the World Cup”: Mohammad Hafeez exclaims Shaheen Afridi’s careless handling of injury by PCB might cost him his T20 World Cup 2022 berth

Mohammad Hafeez exclaims Shaheen Afridi might miss the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia as well due to PCB’s careless approach.

Mohammad Hafeez joins the list of former Pakistan cricketers who have lately expressed their displeasure with the way the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have handled the injury of their star fast bowler Shaheen Afridi.

To brush it up, Afridi had picked up a knee injury during Pakistan’s first Test match against Sri Lanka at Galle in July, and was ruled out for the rest of the series. Despite not having fully recovered, he was picked by the management for the three-match ODI series against Netherlands, although under the supervision of a couple of doctors.

With the Asia Cup 2022 and the T20 World Cup in view as well, the aforementioned decision taken by the PCB  think-tank and by skipper Babar Azam was harshly criticized by the  fans, and as it turned out, the 22-year-old was ruled out of the ongoing Asia Cup and also from Pakistan’s seven match home T20I series against England as well.

Mohammad Hafeez exclaims Shaheen Afridi might miss the 2022 T20 World Cup

With the PCB medical team advising a four-six weeks rest for the left-arm pacer, fans and experts were left scratching their heads when he also travelled with the Pakistan squad to UAE for the Asia Cup.

“Babar wanted him to stay with the team. Management wants to closely monitor his injury rehab. He will be staying in Dubai itself with the team,” a PCB spokesperson had confirmed to the local media in Pakistan.

Ahead of Pakistan’s ongoing clash against India in the tournament’s ‘Super 4’ stage, former Pakistan batter Mohammad Hafeez seemed to be pretty unamused by Shaheen’s lack of discipline post injury, and also criticized the PCB with the way they went about with addressing his injury. Hafeez now also fears that the mishandling of the injury and careless approach by the board might cost Shaheen a place in the T20 World Cup squad  as well.

“Self discipline is your own responsibility, and blaming others is not the correct way forward. Unfortunately, in case of Shaheen, he was not diagnosed properly or the board wasted a lot of time to look after his injury rehab process. The rehab process takes time, and if you are late with the process, the injury takes all the more time to heal properly. Thus, I fear for his on-time recovery which might well mean that he might also be unavailable for the T20 World Cup as  well,” remarked Hafeez.

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