Former Pakistan Cricketer Shahid Afridi was one of the most aggressive batters of his era. On his day, he could rip apart any bowling attack in the world with his stupendous six-hitting prowess. Afridi always left the crowd awestruck whenever he smashed gigantic sixes throughout his career. Former Pakistan fast bowler Waqar Younis recently revealed the secret behind Afridi’s incredible six-hitting ability.
Waqar, who played a lot of cricket with Afridi and also captained the all-rounder, recalled a hilarious incident to give an example of the strength in Afridi’s hands. Waqar said in a Pakistan tour to India, a prominent Indian minister came to meet them. While all the Pakistan cricketers shook hands with the minister gently, Afridi gave him a hard time with his hard handshake.
“When Shahid Afridi first arrived. He was only 15 or 16 and very strong at that age. The first time I shook hands with him, I almost ended up sweating, he squeezed it so hard. That’s probably one of the reasons why he could hit those huge sixes,” Waqar said.
“I still remember… We were on an India tour. I know the name of the Indian minister but I won’t take his name. He came to see us and welcomed us. We were all sitting together. He came and we stood up. He met everyone and greeted us. Afridi was a junior, he was standing in the back. We all shook hands gently as he was an elderly minister. When Afridi’s turn came, he shook the hands so hard,” Waqar said on A Sports while other panellists Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar burst into laughter.
Shahid Afridi smashed the fastest hundred in international cricket in his first-ever innings
Afridi took the cricketing world by storm when he smashed a world record 37-ball hundred against Sri Lanka on 4th October 1996 in his first-ever innings in ODI cricket. His innings was studded with 6 fours and 11 sixes. The record stood for over 17 years until it was broken by New Zealand’s Corey Anderson, who achieved the feat in 36 balls against West Indies on 1st January 2014.
Afridi has the most number of sixes in ODI cricket, i.e 351 in 369 innings. He’s also placed on the third position in the list of highest sixes in international cricket having 476 sixes to his name in 508 innings.
