Shaheen Afridi's Return to First-Class Cricket
Shaheen Shah Afridi is heading back to where it all began.
After years away from Pakistan’s domestic four-day circuit, the left-arm spearhead has been named in the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) squad for the President’s Trophy Grade-I, which starts on September 12. For a bowler fighting to reclaim his place in Pakistan’s Test side, this isn’t just another assignment. It’s an audition.
Left out of the Test squads for the tours of the West Indies and England, Afridi has paid the price for a thin first-class workload. Selectors have made no secret of their preference for bowlers hardened by long spells with the red ball, not just bursts in white-ball cricket. Now, at 26, Afridi has a window to prove he still belongs in that bracket.
His last domestic first-class outing feels a lifetime ago. October 2019, turning out for Northern against Southern Punjab in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. Since then, no four-day appearance on home soil, no domestic red-ball rhythm to fall back on. For a fast bowler whose reputation has grown largely through international and franchise cricket, that gap looms large.
Yet his Test record still speaks loudly. On Pakistan’s tour of Bangladesh earlier this year, he played his most recent Test. Across 34 matches, he has 126 wickets, backed by 13 four-wicket hauls and four five-wicket hauls. Those are the numbers of a strike bowler, not a bit-part option.
Now he returns to KRL, the side that first introduced him to first-class cricket back in 2017. That debut remains etched in Pakistan’s domestic folklore: eight wickets in the second innings against Rawalpindi, figures of 8 for 39, a young left-armer tearing through a batting order and announcing himself with a roar.
That memory lingers, but this comeback carries a different kind of pressure. The President’s Trophy will test more than his skill. It will test his engine. Can he handle long spells again? Can he bowl day after day, session after session, in the grind that defines red-ball cricket?
The Pakistan Cricket Board has stacked KRL with experience around him. Iftikhar Ahmed will lead the side, with Fakhar Zaman as vice-captain. It’s a group built to compete, not just to provide a platform for one man’s return.
All this unfolds against a troubled backdrop for Pakistan’s Test cricket. The ongoing England series has already forced a brutal reset: seven players sent home after heavy defeats in the first two Tests, coaching staff reshuffled, plans ripped up and rewritten mid-tour. The Test setup is in flux, and when that happens, doors can slam shut for some and swing open for others.
For Afridi, the equation is simple. Ignore the noise. Take the new ball. Stack up overs and wickets. Show that the body can cope and the hunger hasn’t dimmed.
The President’s Trophy itself offers a proper examination. Eight teams, 28 league matches, a final scheduled for October 28. Enough time for form to emerge, for rhythm to return, for a fast bowler to build a case that cannot be ignored.
Shaheen Afridi has already proved he can dominate at this level. Now he has to prove it again, under sharper scrutiny and with his Test future on the line.
