An ankle injury on the 1998 England tour required surgery. Much before Cummins, there was Lance Klusener, who began as a new-ball bowler and carried plenty of zip. The results have been there to see, and Cummins is now regarded as a reliable batter across formats. Pat Cummins did that extensively during his long layoff – from bowling machines to throwdowns to net bowlers, he spent considerable time sharpening his skills. Through the monotony of physiotherapy and weight training, doing some batting can be a great sideline activity. As happens with fast bowlers, the rehabilitation phase involves gradually putting weight on the affected part, and bowling might be suspended altogether for a while. It’s naive to think that Shaheen learnt to bat overnight – for the better part of the last six months of 2022, the left-armer spent his time recovering from a serious knee injury. Just over a month after what appeared to be a casual father & son-in-law cricket session, Shaheen has unearthed a serious batting talent. Qalandars won by one run, and they owe their captain a lot of that credit. He turned around the innings, taking his side from 112-5 to 200-6. And it was incredible.įifteen balls, 44 runs, two fours, five sixes. A four-ball 12 meant Shaheen still backed himself to go big. Had the experiment ended as quickly as it started? Not quite. Was it all a fluke?Ī game later, Shaheen was back at down at eight. In a no-nonsense, see-it-hit-it approach, he smashed five sixes – currently one-fourth of his T20 career tally.Ī two-ball duck in the next game dragged him back down to earth. But he accelerated, going for big leg-side slogs and swipes, backing his frame to pound the ball across the ropes. Before he hit the groove in that innings to reach his maiden fifty, Shaheen took time to get going – his first nine balls fetched one run. That changed things dramatically – he smoked a 36-ball 52 after a top-order collapse (21-4) in a 208-run chase and, while Qalandars fell short, the team had discovered an able power-hitter. He began the tournament at No.9, but slowly crawled up the order – first to No.6, then back to No.9, before returning to six again. When PSL 2023 came, Shaheen astonished all by hitting nearly 43 per cent of all his T20 runs.

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