Afridi looks to soar once more

He jogs a few steps and rolls his arm in the centre net. He gets the ball to shape. He jogs in again, and the result is similar. He is warming up for what will be Pakistan's last proper net session before the first Test on Monday.

It is usual for teams to have light top-up sessions a day out of a Test as the coaches look to preserve their players' energies. So, Pakistan are going full throttle on Saturday. And, here is this fast bowler gearing up to prove he is worthy of being in the XI.

He continues to lengthen his run up and add vigour to it as he loosens up in an empty net.

When Mohammad Rizwan takes guard, he runs in from his bowling mark and bowls in swing. The ball would have hit the off stump had Rizwan not dead batted it.

Shaheen Afridi continues to bring the ball into Rizwan from a good length. He bowls a jaffa that makes Rizwan hop. By the time, Rizwan is able to bring his bat down; the ball has already thudded into the net behind him, leaving a big hole in his defences on its way.

It would have shaved the bails if they were positioned on top of the poles. Afridi stands beside the pitch with the hands on his face. He stays there for some seconds.

His brute pace and searing swing has given an illusion of gaping holes in the defences of batters with solid techniques over the years. Remember the one that angled in from wide off the crease and beat David Warner's leading edge on its way to rattle his off stump in Lahore or the one that came back sharply into Rohit Sharma and thudded into the middle stump in Pallekele?

That delivery to Rizwan was a perfect glimpse into Afridi's prime.

It has been a striking downward spiral for Afridi, who has been Pakistan's most trusted deliverer over the years. When England last arrived in the country in 2022, Pakistan rued Afridi's injury. They were eager - borderline desperate - to put him back on the park. Now, when England are back, Pakistan are hoping that the fast bowler is able to earn a place in the XI.

Pakistan had dropped Afridi from their last Test in what was a remarkable indication of the bowler's dwindling stature as a trusted performer. It was not just any Test, but a must-win game on which the team's reputation rested.

Since his return to Test cricket after the knee injury in July 2023, Afridi has struggled to find his mojo. The threatening pace is not there anymore and it has subdued the psychological advantage that he once had over oppositions. Take the first Test against Bangladesh when the visiting top order batters blunted his new ball swing, punching and driving him with ease and comfort. He came out of that match with just two lower-order wickets.

Since July 2023, Afridi has taken 16 wickets in 10 innings at an average of 40.81 and it has taken him 72 balls on average to take one wicket. These - by any standard - are poor numbers for a strike bowler, but their haplessness is underscored when they are compared with his returns before the injury when his 99 wickets came at only 24.86 runs per dismissal and he took a wicket every 49th delivery.

In the meantime, there have also been debilitating controversies. It has been thatphase for Afridi. A phase that almost all international cricketers go through. But, these are the phases which make them tougher and stronger. These are the phases that define their career arc and how their careers would end.

In those five Tests during the 2022-23 season when Afridi remained unavailable because of the knee injury, Pakistan never took 20 wickets in a Test. When Test cricket finally returned to Pakistan - at the turn of the decade - Pakistan fielded an all-out pace attack and looked all set to assume it as their identity with Afridi being the spearhead.

What made Pakistan comfortable in putting their entire trust in him was his red ball prowess that his peers lacked. After all, no fast bowler from Pakistan has breached the 100 Test wickets mark in this decade.

During the middle of the session, Tony Hemming, Pakistan's head curator, lets Gillespie have a glimpse of the pitch. He rolls over a portion of the cover and unveils a pitch with a tinge of green. The square is lush green. It indicates Pakistan's eagerness to play their home contests on pace-friendly wickets and provide their pacers the desired conditions to thrive. For that to happen, they need Afridi to take the charge again.

Afridi hits the good length again and takes the ball away from Rizwan. It nips away off the seam and rears a little more than the other deliveries have done from that length. Some rounds later, he welcomes Shan Masood with outswing. Masood goes for the cut but is beaten.

Azhar Mahmood had been charged with working on the technical aspects of Afridi's fast bowling. But, at the moment, he is feeding catches to Abdullah Shafique, Salman Ali Agha, Babar Azam, and Saim Ayub as they form a four-man slip cordon, some yards away from the centre net.

After bowling at high pace for half an hour in the sweltering Multan heat, Afridi walks away from the centre net. But, after a 30-minute-rest, he is back bowling to the right-handers from around the wicket. He is hitting the deck hard this time with ferocious whips of his wrist.

The PCB media team put out a video on Friday showing Mahmood working with Afridi and Naseem Shah. But, today, Afridi has gone about his business without the need of the assistant coaching overlooking him. Pakistan would hope that things change for good for him from here.