Shaheen Afridi made a memorable return to Test cricket against Sri Lanka and completed 100 wickets early on day 1. The left-arm pacer is playing a Test match after a year. A knee injury kept Shaheen out of action for a long period in the 2022/23 season.
Afridi celebrated the milestone in iconic fashion and stretched his arms. The youngster got Madushka caught by Sarfaraz Ahmed for a score of 4 off nine balls.
Pakistan legend Wasim Akram was elated with Afridi’s milestone and congratulated him on Twitter. “Congratulations @iShaheenAfridi on your 100 test wickets, just one of the many milestones to come…
Keep going strong!” he wrote.
Afridi continued to rule the roost and dismissed Kusal Mendis in the 7th over. He followed up with the wicket of SL captain Dimuth Karunaratne, who scored 29 off 43. Naseem Shah scalped Dinesh Chandimal’s wicket to leave SL reeling at 54/4.
Afridi, who was fast-tracked into the Pakistan team after his heroics in the 2018 U-19 World Cup, is playing his 26th Test match. He has 70 wickets in 36 ODIs and 64 scalps in 52 T20Is. He made his Test debut against New Zealand in 2018 while his ODI debut came in the 2018 Asia Cup. Afridi played his first T20I just two months after the U-19 WC. He is the leader of Pakistan’s pace attack across all three formats of the game.