Former captain concerned over Shaheen Afridi's exclusion from ODI squad

Former Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez has questioned the role of pacer Shaheen Afridi after his exclusion from the ODI squad for the New Zealand tour.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the ODI and T20I squads for the upcoming tour of New Zealand, scheduled from March 16 to April 5.

The PCB sidelined star batters Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan from the T20I squad while Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf were left out of the ODI squad.

Following the announcement of the Pakistan squads, Mohammad Hafeez raised concerns over Shaheen Afridi’s future role in the Pakistan cricket.

Speaking with a private TV channel, the former Pakistan captain mentioned the decision to leave out the left-arm pacer from the Test squad.

“First, Shaheen Afridi is dropped from the Test squad, and the reason given is that he is being rested. But Shaheen himself says, ‘I am not resting; I have been dropped.’ Yes, he hasn’t been performing well in ODIs, and failure is a different issue, but this is not the right approach,” Hafeez said.

“First, he was removed from Tests, then from ODIs—so what exactly is Shaheen Afridi’s role now?” he added.

Hafeez’s comments came days after he called on Pakistan cricket to move on from the bowling trio led by Afridi over their poor outing in the Champions Trophy 2025.

“The trio of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf failed to perform in 2023’s Asia Cup, 50-over World Cup, T-20 World Cup and in Champions Trophy 2025,” he said following Pakistan’s loss to India on February 23.

“Let’s move on from them. Let’s bring other people. Let’s go with Mohammad Ali, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Wasim Jr., Akif Javed, Mir Hamza,” Hafeez said at the time.