Mark Waugh includes Shaheen Afridi in his top-five T20I players

F.P. Report

KARACHI: Pakistan pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi is among the top-five players in the world on Australia cricketer Mark Waugh’s list.

The former all-rounder selected his five favourite players in the shortest format of the game with the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 approaching.

While heavily praising Shaheen, Waugh said: “To open the bowling at the other end, we’ll go with another great opening bowler, Shaheen Afridi from Pakistan, who is a tremendous left-arm fast bowler.”

“He’s a wicket-taker. He sort of lifts the team. He’s a guy that other players follow. He is a left-arm so that’s another point of difference. He can swing the ball back into the right-hander, he’s quick as well, so I’ve got him number two,” he added.

Waugh’s top five T20I players:

• Jasprit Bumrah — India
• Shaheen Shah Afridi — Pakistan
• Rashid Khan — Afghanistan
• Jos Butler — England
• Glenn Maxwell — Australia

Waugh emphasised that his list was not in any particular order while speaking in the run-up to the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, although he started with the bowlers from the group of five.

It must be noted here that Shaheen was the driving force of Pakistan’s T20 World Cup 2021 stint.