Pakistan tour of England 2020: Shaheen Afridi looking to learn from Wahab Riaz

Shaheen Afridi looking to learn from Wahab Riaz: The promising Pakistani fast bowler seems to be keen to learn from the senior player’s Test comeback.

Pakistan fast bowler Shaheen Afridi has admitted that the Pakistani team will be noting key points from West Indies tour of England as the series will be the first one to be played under ICC’s new COVID-19 rules for cricket.

“Before us, the West Indies will be playing against England. We’ll try to learn from them and how well they use the ball taking into consideration the new rules,” Afridi was quoted as saying in a media interaction on Wednesday.

Pakistan, who are expected to travel to England nearly a month before the first Test in the first week of July, will have much-needed time to practice on their hand as they haven’t had an official training session in Pakistan due to the COVID-19 threat.

Are you ready? #TheEagle #RiseAndRise pic.twitter.com/hCxffG2MDP

— Shaheen Shah Afridi (@iShaheenAfridi) June 5, 2020

“As a bowler I am getting a lot of time before the Test matches get underway, so I’ll try to work on my lines and lengths during the practice games. We’re trying to prepare ourselves at home according to the new rules and conditions,” Afridi said regarding utilizing the time by working on his line and length.

Shaheen Afridi looking to learn from Wahab Riaz

Afridi, who will be on his second tour of England, reiterated Pakistan’s “good” performances in England in the recent years and how he’s hopeful of the team repeating the same again.

“We’re hopeful of winning this bilateral series in England. If you look at the past results, it was a drawn Test series in 2016. Following that, we won the Champions Trophy in 2017. Our performances in England have been good in recent times, so we’re hopeful of performing well once again,” Afridi further said.

Being asked about the Test comeback of the 34-year old left-arm fast bowler Wahab Riaz, Afridi considered it to be helpful for the team especially someone like himself who belong to the same genre of bowling.

“It’s a good thing that Wahab Riaz is back in the Test squad and it’ll be helpful for us. Given his experience, I’ll get to learn a lot from him. Our bowling has always been top-notch in the recent past, hence we’ll try to deliver our best in this series as well,” Afridi added.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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