Aakash Chopra defends his decision of naming Afridi as decade’s best T20 all-rounder

Former Indian cricketer and commentator Aakash Chopra started his new year by unveiling a list of players who have been the best in the T20 format during the previous decade. He started the list by taking the name of Virat Kohli as the best batsman and Lasith Malinga as the best bowler.

Taking it to Twitter, Chopra further wrote Jos Buttler’s name as the best wicket-keeper of the decade in the shortest format. But when it came to the best all-rounder, he took the name of iconic Pakistan player Shahid Afridi. As soon as he shared the update, a lot of people were not happy with Afridi’s name on the list.

 

One netizen asked him why did he take Shahid Afridi’s name in the list. The user wrote, “Explain us why u choose Afridi for impressing Pakistani fans?”

The former right-hand batsman was quick to reply and noted that the user should go and check Afridi’s record during the last decade and he will get an answer to his own question.

shahid afridi vs south africa

The right-arm leg-spinner from Pakistan has scored more than 1450 runs in 91 innings at an average of 18.01 in the T20Is. He had a strike-rate of 150 during his career. As a bowler, he took 98 wickets and at an economy rate of 6.63, which is considered to be good in this format.

Talking about Afridi, a few days ago he found himself stirring controversy when he admitted that he destroyed a TV of his house after seeing his daughter trying to perform a particular scene from an Indian TV series.

While making an appearance on a Pakistani chat show in 2017, the 44-year-old former cricketer can be seen saying that he smashed a TV once because of his wife. He further stated that he lost his cool when he saw one of his daughters imitating an “arti” scene from a popular daily soap on Star Plus.

Shahid-Afridi

“I saw one of my kids performing ‘arti’ while watching a Star Plus show. I then smashed the TV inside the wall,” Afridi added.

The internet was quite vocal in echoing their disappointment over Afridi’s remarks and shared the video across all the social media platforms. Meanwhile, he was also criticized for making a mockery of Hindu ethics.