Shahid Afridi: Leading Pakistan’s Charge

Unpredictable just like the side he represents, Shahid Afridi has been a surprise stand-out performer with the ball according to the Castrol Index.

Mercurial is a word we have come to associate with the Pakistan cricket team. No one exemplifies that description better than their captain. On multiple occasions in his career, Shahid Afridi has been destructive with the bat. He has also often self-destructed in key moments. The story is no different with the ball. Here are some numbers that illustrate Afridi’s erratic production numbers: in 2009, Afridi had one of his worse years with the bat when he averaged 19.6. 2010 was much better when Afridi averaged a career high 33.4 and scored two ODI centuries for the first time in a calendar year. By contrast, his bowling looked steady in 2009 when he picked up 27 wickets at under 30 runs per wicket and under 4.5 runs per over. But in 2010, his bowling was all over the place and he averaged 45 runs per wicket and went at nearly 5 per over.

Afridi’s performances show more cyclicality than the steel industry and it looks like 2011 is the year of “Bowler Afridi” while “Batter Afridi” might come back to life in 2012, in time for the T20 World Cup! That said, the current version at the World Cup might be the best Afridi has ever been in terms of his contribution to the side. The table below highlights his figures at the World Cup so far.   

  

A glance at the numbers will tell you he’s been pretty darn good with the ball and he is the highest wicket-taker in the tournament. In fact, he’s been far and away the best bowler in the tournament as the graph below indicates. With economy rate on the horizontal axis and strike rate on the vertical, the more bottom left a player is the better his performance. The size of the bubble indicates total number of wickets. Of the bowlers with 10 or more wickets in the tournament, Afridi has been the tightest going at 3.48 runs per over. In terms of strike rate, he picks up a wicket about every 3 overs with a strike rate of 18.4 - only Tahir has picked up wickets more regularly.

There’s a lot of clutter in the middle of the graph with pacemen Gul, Southee, Steyn, Lee, Roach and Zaheer all in the 3.9-4.3 economy rate and a 20-23 strike rate range. The three stand-out bowlers are all spinners, with Muralidaran being miserly as ever, Tahir - a potent wicket-taker, and Afridi - the best of the lot with a ton of wickets and an outstanding economy rate. That’s why he leads the Castrol Index Bowling Efficiency with a score over 100. He will be hoping to keep the performances going for two more matches and turn the big games in Pakistan’s favour.

Imran Khan was the last Pakistan captain to capture a World Cup - the man was a genuine all-rounder but played the tournament primarily as a batsman because of injuries. Shahid Afridi may be classified as an all-rounder, but he’s really been playing like a specialist bowler so far, and that’s working fine for the team. If Pakistan are to repeat their 1992 heroics it will have to “Bowler Afridi” who continues to deliver.