Batsmen who turned bowlers

[GoldenAsif]

Re: Batsmen who turned bowlers

@Pathan_Bhai

c’mon dudes, there r at least half a dozen is the current Pakistani team who entered the team not primarily on their batting but improved much later case in hand like Kamran Akmal, Shaoib Malik, and Abdur Razzaq too. My question was not that. My question is to check whether there has been case like Afridis where with time batsman’s skills and confidence are seen diminished.

Shahid Afridi was never a proper batsman, more a compulsive shot-maker and although until 2004 it was too often his undoing,** be**tween **2005 and 2006, **he did display some consistency with the bat (thanks to Woolmer) scoring 2nd fastest ODI century in terms of balls faced against India in 2005. A few weeks before he smashed the joint second fastest test half-century at Bangalore and took crucial last day wickets which helped Pakistan level the Test series 1-1. He followed it up with a century against the West Indies and contributions against England at the end of the year. He then scored two test hundreds during the 2006 home series against India incl. a Test best of 156 at Karachi.

I think age is catching up with him (like so many others incl. Sachin). officially he is 32, unofficially he could be 35 or 36 (by his own admission). Your reflexes slow down with age which affects the timing (and power) of your shots. Those fearless lofted drives and short-arm jabs that used to end up in the stands, these days end up in the hands of the long-on or long-off fielders!