Shaheen Shah Afridi Eager to Emulate Father-in-Law Shahid Afridi's Dileri

Shaheen Shah Afridi is eager to play the game with the same "dileri (valour)" that his father-in-law and "hero," former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, used to possess.

Despite all of his efforts, Pakistan's pace spearhead has experienced both sides of the coin in the current World Cup, which is also his first exposure to the flat Indian pitches. The left-arm quick, who currently has 16 scalps, is one of the leading wicket-takers in this edition, although at times he has also been costly.

Shaheen agreed that quicks have struggled in this World Cup due to the lack of swing in the weather. Nonetheless, Shaheen did appear to be the Shaheen that Pakistan and the rest of the cricket community expect him to be on Tuesday at Eden Gardens against Bangladesh.

There was some early purchase for pacers on the somewhat slow and dry Eden pitch. The 23-year-old took advantage of that to disrupt the opposition's top order and set up Pakistan for an eventual seven-wicket victory.

Eden Pitch had a fairly sluggish surface. Therefore, it was necessary to add some variation and stir things around a bit in that bowl. That would result in more sales, according to Shaheen.

Although he has recently faced difficulties, the fastest fast bowler to 100 ODI wickets and the top-ranked bowler in the 50-over format relied on his variations to give Pakistan the momentum they sorely needed to preserve their hopes of making it to the semi-finals.

Trent Boult and Mitchell Starc, two other left-arm fast bowlers, are also being negatively impacted by lack of swing. We constantly attempt to get the ball to swing, but it rarely does. Thus, length becomes important in this situation, Shaheen said.

That six to seven-meter difference is significant. It's a little harder to hit early on if you bowl at that 6-7 meter difference. However, I always attempt to bowl with variations in mind because Muhammad Wa­sim and Haris Rauf both have quick paces.

Sikandar Bakht, a former Pakistani pacer, feels that Shaheen still has a lot of work ahead of him because New Zealand and England will present greater obstacles than Bangladesh. Bakht said to The Telegraph on Wednesday, "Yes, Shaheen bowled better yesterday (Tuesday) and his run-up was pretty smooth, but I'm surprised he said he has to make adjustments on the slow Indian pitches."

The Pakistanis were participating in T20 and T10 leagues across the globe, so they simply did not have time to prepare. I continue to think Shaheen's lack of fitness is the reason he wasn't able to bowl well earlier.

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"Moreover, he didn't really impact bowling during his five-for (5/54 against Australia) as many of his wickets came from tailenders."