Shahid Afridi

Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi , popularly known as Shahid Afridi or by his nickname Boom Boom Afridi or “The Beast”, is a Pakistani cricketer currently playing for the Pakistan.

He is known for his aggressive batting style, and currently holds the highest career strike rate in the history of international cricket. In a recent survey, Afridi was named as the most popular cricketer in Pakistan.

On April 12, 2006, Shahid Afridi announced a temporary retirement from Test cricket until after the 2007 World Cup so that he could concentrate on ODIs. Even then his performance in county cricket for Ireland recently had declined and he bowled better than he batted. He also claimed that the workload was too much to cope with.

However, on April 27, 2006, after much discussion the Pakistan Cricket Board then chairman, Afridi reversed his decision. Despite this, Shahid Afridi was later dropped from the Test team in early August 2006 after three quick-fire innings against England. He was placed well down the batting order, away from his more usual spot in the middle-order, and displayed flamboyantly reckless strokeplay on the bouncy English pitches, leading to short but entertaining innings.