“M trending on Twitter but why”: Mohammad Amir scratches his head as Pakistan fans trend him across social media post Shaheen Afridi’s injury news ruling him out of Asia Cup 2022

Mohammad Amir scratches his head as Pakistan Cricket fans trend him on Twitter, ever since Shaheen Afridi is ruled out of Asia Cup 2022.

Team Pakistan and their ardent fans were handed a heavy blow on Saturday, as a knee injury ruled their ace fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi out of the imminent Asia Cup 2022.

It is learnt that Afridi failed to recover from the right knee ligament injury which he had sustained during the first Test of Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka the previous month.

While he was included in the team’s squad for the ongoing tour of Netherlands, the injury seems to be a grave one, as he has also been ruled out of the seven-match T20I series at home against England next month, post the Asia Cup in UAE.

A “four to six weeks rest” has been prescribed by the PCB’s medical advisory committee, as the board might well not afford to miss the services of their champion pacer during the T20 World Cup in Australia starting October.

Mohammad Amir scratches his head as Pakistan Cricket fans trend him on Twitter

The Pakistan fans, while expressing their disappointment over their ace left-arm pacer’s exclusion from the squad, started trending another experienced left-arm pacer – Mohammad Amir, across the social media platforms.

The reason might well have to to with the fact that be it Afridi or Amir, the Indian batting line-up has struggled to get them away, as was the case during Pakistan’s rare, yet memorable wins during the 2017 Champions Trophy final, and the 2021 T20 World Cup opening  match against the arch-rivals.

Also, with the Indian top-order’s (in particular) recent struggles against left-arm pace bowling off-late in the T20 format, the fans opine that Shaheen was their best bet to make a dent in the strong Indian batting line-up.

Apart from Amir, other left-arm pacers in Wahab Riaz and Mir Hamza were also trending on the micro-blogging site, as fans yearned for their inclusion in the Asia Cup 2022 squad.

Is Mohammed Amir retired?

For those unaware, Amir had, in December 2020, decided to retire from international Cricket citing ‘mental torture’ and ‘hostile environment’ he faced at the hands of team management.

However, in June last year, the 30-year-old had yet again announced that he was open to come out of retirement provided his concerns are addressed and attended to.