Shahid Afridi’s Innings End!

He announces international retirement 

Shahid Afridi announced his retirement from international cricket on yesterday to draw time on a career that has seen some breathtaking hits, thumping sixes and some ‘boom, boom’ action on and off the field of play. His 21-year-old career saw plenty of ups and downs and unfortunately comes to a close with ‘Lala’ unable to get a farewell game and not having represented Pakistan since leading them in the World T20 last year in a disappointing showing.
He had already quit from Test cricket in 2010 and ODIs in 2015 and now focused entirely on the shortest format of the game while also playing in the international leagues around the world. At present he is playing in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and on Sunday he said, “I play for my fans and to lift the gloom around the PSL after what happened in Lahore recently. I have said Khuda Hafiz (god) to international cricket. Most important thing these days for me is my foundation. I believe I can still play cricket for a year or two. I’ve always played for Pakistan as professionally as possible.” Afridi rose to recognition with a rapid 37-ball century against Sri Lanka in 1996 which made him the fastest centurion – a record that was unbeaten for 17 years until Corey Anderson took 36 balls for a ton and then AB de Villiers went top of the chart with a 31 ball century.
Afridi calls time on his international career after 27 Tests, 398 ODIs and 98 T20Is. In them he accumulated 1,176 runs, 8, 064 runs and 1,405 runs respectively. He also proved to be a nifty add with the ball picking up a total of 540 wickets.
But with his on-off retirement talk over the past few months, Twitterati wasn’t as forgiving to his legendary career.