Pakistan star pacer, Shaheen Afridi has been ruled out of the Asia Cup as well as the home series against England as he keeps on recuperating from a knee injury while Afridi is with the Pakistan group in the Netherlands as a feature of his recovery program.
Pakistan star pacer, Shaheen Afridi has been ruled out of the Asia Cup as well as the home series against England as he keeps on recuperating from a knee injury.
Afridi is with the Pakistan group in the Netherlands as a feature of his recovery program, being regulated by the mentor and the physiotherapist, and has been encouraged to rest for four to six weeks following the latest scans and reports.
However, he will stay with the squad working with the clinical group, the PCB expressed in a release on Saturday (August 20).
“Shaheen Shah Afridi has been advised 4-6 weeks rest by the PCB Medical Advisory Committee and independent specialists following the latest scans and reports. This means Shaheen has been ruled out of the ACC T20 Asia Cup and home series against England,”
the Pakistan board said in its statement.
Afridi got a right knee tendon injury while fielding during the first Test against Sri Lanka in July and has been down and out since.
As per the PCB, he is supposed to get back to activity in the T20I tri-series in New Zealand, which also includes Bangladesh, set to start on October 7 only 16 days from Pakistan’s opening T20 World Cup game against India.
“I have spoken with Shaheen and he is understandably upset with the news, but he is a brave young man who has vowed to come back strongly to serve his country and team. Although he has made progress during his rehabilitation in Rotterdam, it is now clear he will require more time and is likely to return to competitive cricket in October,”
said PCB Chief Medical Officer Dr. Najeebullah Soomro.
“PCB’s Sports & Exercise Medicine Department will be working closely with the player over the coming weeks to ensure his safe return to competitive cricket,”
he added.
Pakistan and India will play their Asia Cup clash on August 28 in Dubai while Pakistan will host England in a seven-match T20I series from September 20 to October 2. Pakistan is yet to announce a replacement for Shaheen Afridi in their Asia Cup squad.
India’s Squad for Asia Cup 2022: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(Wk), Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik (Wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.
Backup: Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Axar Patel.
Pakistan’s squad for Asia Cup: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir.