​’Pakistan need wickets not speed’: Shaheen Afridi admits his pace has decreased ahead of key England clash in Lahore originally appeared on Cricket News.
Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.KEY TAKEAWAYS:Shaheen Afridi has admitted his bowling speed has dropped.The Pakistan ODI captain says wickets matter more than pace.Pakistan face England at the Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday, unbeaten in the tri-series.Shaheen Afridi accepts his pace has gone and says it does not matterAsked directly about the speeds on the gun, Pakistan’s ODI captain did not reach for an excuse. Afridi was candid in his response and he had no shame in admitting that he can no longer generate the same pace he had a couple of years ago.”Absolutely, my speed has decreased,” Afridi said, before arguing that the team does not need him to bowl quickly in the first place.Afridi’s case is that the attack is built to cover for it. Haris Rauf is in the side precisely to provide the raw pace, which leaves Shaheen free to do a different job with the new ball. “I think the Pakistan team needs a wicket, not speed. They have kept Haris Rauf and Razzaqullah for that,” he said.What he believes works instead is accuracy, and he put it in terms of what unsettles a batter rather than what shows up on a readout. “But I think when your line and length will be better, the other team is more disturbed,” Shaheen added.Pakistan meet England in the fourth match of the ODI tri-series at the Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday, having won both their games so far, including an 87-run win over the same opposition in Rawalpindi on October 20. Shaheen is a wicket away from becoming the eighth Pakistani fast bowler to reach 150 in ODIs.MORE: Pakistan vs England 4th ODI prediction, lineups and Gaddafi Stadium pitch report — who will win?Pakistan have been worrying about their bowling speeds for two yearsThis is not a new conversation, and Shaheen is not the only one in it. Pakistan’s fast bowlers have been losing pace collectively for some time, to the point that the National Cricket Academy has been working on a plan to address it.Shaheen himself framed the problem earlier this year with the line that machines deteriorate with time and pointed to workload, saying a bowler can put more pace on the ball when his body has been rested while Pakistan’s remain permanently in use.The consequences have shown up most clearly in Tests. Jason Gillespie, when he was head coach, said it was unacceptable that speeds were dropping to 126 kph by the second or third day, and Shaheen has since been left out of the red-ball setup altogether, missing the tours of the West Indies and England because he does not play first-class cricket.Lahore should at least suit his argument. The Gaddafi Stadium has bigger boundaries than Rawalpindi, and in a format where containment matters more than raw hostility, a bowler who hits his lengths has somewhere to hide.MORE: Pakistan squad for Sri Lanka Test series 2026: