KARACHI, Oct 25: Terming his bowling performance superb, chief selector Saleem Jaffer reckons despite the poor batting form flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi has still got cricket left in him.

“Afridi is a utility cricketer and currently he is playing as a bowling all-rounder,” Saleem said in an interview at the National Stadium on Saturday while watching the opening day’s play in the Pentangular Cup match between Sindh and Federal Areas.

Afridi, who on his day becomes a nightmare for opposition bowlers, has played 265 One-day Internationals so far to score 5479 runs with the help of four centuries and 29 half-centuries averaging 23.51 per innings after making his ODI debut against Kenya in October 1996. The extraordinarily belligerent player has maintained a super strike-rate of 111.22 in these 265 games. With his attacking leg-spin, Afridi has also claimed 239 wickets at 34.90 apiece.

The stunning-cum-matchlessly unpredictable Afridi, in the meantime, has also featured in 26 Tests making 1683 runs at 37.40 with the assistance of five centuries and eight half-centuries. He has taken 47 wickets in these Tests at 34.89.

Afridi, 28, who hammered the One-day International history’s fastest century against Sri Lanka in Nairobi, Kenya in 1996, has been struggling with the bat for quite sometime.

Since making his last half-century against minnows Zimbabwe at Multan in January this year, Afridi has failed miserably with the willow, scoring mere 110 runs in his last nine innings at 15.71 runs per innings with 27 not out against Bangladesh being his highest score.He could not anything considerable with the bat in the recently held quadrangular Twenty20 tournament in Toronto either.

Still, the chief selector is backing the versatile player. “He (Afridi) is going through a lean batting patch. But he is bowling superbly,” Saleem commented.

Saleem, who as appointed as the chief selector after the resignation of Salahuddin Ahmed earlier this month, said Afridi had been a batting all-rounder in the past, adding, however the situation has changed lately.

“But in the recent past he emerged as a bowling all-rounder and won some matches with his bowling in ODIs and Twenty20 international games.

“In addition to his bowling, Afridi is also a very good fielder which is an important factor in modern-day cricket,” he remarked.—APP