Among my friends at school...none of us had the same favourite player from any sports or teams....If i rooted for beckham...niki got a triangular hair cut of ronaldo...If i cheered Raikkonen(this was around 2001..)...siddharth loved schumi....If i loved Justine...some other guy hated her at sight...No one's taste matched....but when it all came down to cricket....Shahid was the only choice...and even among gals..(for obvious reasons they say...I still dont get what they mean...)...When any of us would walk out to bat among our famed bet matches(10 Rs bets..)...we would jus shout.."Go...Do an Afridi"...that was the impact he had on many young kids...and now he is doing it again...
And in the final...when pakistan were 1 wicket down...I would have happily sent Misbah to bat...(even after he choked at the death 2 years back...remember 1st T20 world cup??...)...Ya... because given Afridi's batting form for the past 2 years no one would trust him with bat even after he sealed the semifinal match for them...Many say he is in the team only on his reputation...But the captain's gamble paid off.....Or may be it wasn't a gamble at all in the first place...May be he fits at No.3 better than elsewhere...( Jus like the golden era when he used to open with Anwar..)...Only time must tell....with this 29 yr old...I still don't believe his age.....Am only sure it would be between 29 and 35...And no further comments...
P.S:: A rumour goes that Afridi apart from his bowling.....still has been scoring consistently...well...not on the field....
P.P.S:: One of ma friends is struggling to make followers for his blog...Do help him...he is sarath teja and his link wil be in one of the comments....!!