The arrival of Shaheen Afridi, lower-order basher

Shaheen Shah Afridi always had the batting chops. Until recently, they appeared only in flashes, like at the PSL 2023 final.

That night in Lahore, Afridi wasn't even padded up when Sikandar Raza was dismissed in the 15th over. Yet, he somehow stopped David Wiese from crossing over the boundary rope and beat him to the crease at No. 7 to unleash one of the most electrifying death-over onslaughts in recent memory.

Every one of his 44 runs, off just 15 balls, proved crucial as Lahore Qalandars pulled off a one-run thriller in what was one of the all-time great T20 finals.

On Wednesday at the Asia Cup, the stakes were just as high. Pakistan were in knockout territory after Sunday's seven-wicket drubbing at the hands of India. Afridi himself contributed a T20I best - an unbeaten 16-ball 33 - to revive a faltering innings, and give the bowlers something to defend. The knock barely got its due, though, amid India's clinical chase and the handshakes-that-weren't chaos that followed.

But it's unlikely to have escaped coach Mike Hesson. Because, all through that brief innings, there were enough signs that Afridi's hitting was a weapon Pakistan could increasingly rely on.

Sure, there was an element of pre-meditation to his game, but his clean swing, tact in targeting the shorter boundary, and holding his shape to deliveries dug in, especially in the death overs by Hardik Pandya, were all attributes of someone who has spent considerable time working on his craft.

If Sunday's knock was a glimpse of his ability, Wednesday's against UAE was a reinforcement of Afridi's batting chops under pressure. With so much happening around the team, there's no telling what a loss to a lower-ranked, unfancied opponent could have done to the team. And at 110 for 7, with 19 balls still left in the innings, that threat was real.

Afridi had seen first-hand the effects a below-par target to defend in the face of dew can have for bowlers, when Abhishek Sharma took all of two deliveries against him to announce himself. UAE openers Muhammad Waseem and Alishan Sharafu may not be Abhishek, but in a knockout game, all it takes is one innings to trigger a wave of confidence.

It's likely Afridi wasn't thinking of a score in mind as much as he was just reacting to what was thrown at him. He ended up biffing 29 off 14 balls, much of it constructed during the course of a telling 20th over, where he turned into the other Afridi, Shahid. The result was two sixes and a four in an 18-run over that lifted Pakistan to 146, when they looked like finishing with 125.

If the first six was all about backing away and swinging cleanly to a yorker that went wrong, the second was pure wrist-work mastery as he flicked the ball up and over deep-backward square-leg.

The awareness of the bowler wanting to shorten his length as a consequence of being picked away with two full deliveries helped Afridi pocket a boundary as he got inside the line to help it along behind square. As Afridi walked off, he knew, and Pakistan knew, they may have just given themselves enough to defend.

Before the Asia Cup, Afridi had batted 30 times in T20Is for a modest return of 188 runs. Two games into the tournament, he has taken that tally to 250 in 32 innings.

The foundations of his new-found batting verve was established at the PSL. From PSL 2018 until the end of PSL 2022, Afridi had hit just two sixes, with a highest of 12. In the last three editions, he has hit 24 sixes - further proof of his improved hitting abilities.

Ironically, it may have been a knee injury in 2022 - one that caused much uproar because of the way his rehab was managed - that may have been the turning point. The lengthy rehab phase, where he couldn't bowl much, allowed him to bat more than he had ever done. And the gains are increasingly evident.

It feels strange to talk of Afridi and not talk of his bowling impact or the late banana inswing of the kind that takes Wasim Akram back to his heyday. But it's actually his batting, despite that wicket of Waseem with some of that late tail, albeit off an inside edge, that has single-handedly kept Pakistan alive in the Asia Cup.

While the new-found dimension lends much depth to a brittle batting line-up, Pakistan will do well to ensure Afridi doesn't end up carrying more than he can manage amid soaring expectation that will now invariably accompany him to the crease every single time.