In 2018, Shaheen Shah Afridi became Pakistan's first international cricketer born after the turn of the millenium when he took the field for a T20I against West Indies in Karachi. That was in April. In September, he made his ODI debut and in December his Test debut.

Comparisons with Wasim Akram abounded. After all, Shaheen, like Wasim, was a left-arm pacer and like Wasim, had played just three first-class matches before making his Test debut.

He soon became one of the hottest prospects in T20 cricket. At 6'6", Shaheen could hit the deck hard and extract bounce off the most placid of pitches. He could ramp up the pace when he wanted to, and had a deadly inswinger to the right-hander when he bowled with the new ball. To top it all off, Shaheen was also a capable bowler at the back end of T20 matches, when batters were going hammer and tongs at him.

Many of Shaheen's skills translated to the 50-over game, where he is currently the fourth-highest wicket-taker in the world since his debut, having played significantly fewer matches than the top three. In Test cricket, he has never really lit up the pitch but 115 wickets at an average of 27 is a highly respectable record for an Asian pace bowler.

But six years on from his debut, a series of events seem to have affected his game, to the point where head coach Jason Gillespie barely stopped short of saying his star bowler had been dropped for sub-standard performances.

What's bugging Shaheen Shah Afridi?

Of late, Shaheen has remained more or less as good as he has ever been in white-ball cricket for Pakistan. But in the longest format, the wheels appear to be falling off. Since 2022, Shaheen has taken 29 wickets in nine Tests at an average of 36. Since 2023, he averages 41 with the ball.

The unfriendly conditions for bowlers at home is one aspect of these numbers, but there have been other worrying happenings around the star pacer. For one, the PCB's 'change is the only constant' approach to managing their staff has led to innumerable upheavals in coaches, captains and management and administrative staff.

Such a team environment is unlikely to be healthy for any player, and this is not unique to Shaheen.

What is, though, is a recent, related, development. Shaheen was installed as the team's new T20I captain following Babar Azam's resignation after the 2023 World Cup. A storm in the media ensued, with Shaheen's father-in-law, Shahid Afridi having to refute allegations of his constant lobbying for Shaheen to replace Babar.

Read more: A timeline of Pakistan’s four-month captaincy saga

Perhaps unwittingly, the two star players had virtually been pitted against each other for no fault of their own. It didn't help Shaheen's cause that his first series as captain saw his side thrashed 4-1 by New Zealand, and he was unceremoniously stripped of the repsonsibility soon after.

That was a move that did not go seem to go down well with the bowler, who took to posting cryptic Instagram stories and later coming out to clarify publicly that he had not issued a statement in support of the reinstatement of Babar as Pakistan's T20I captain. Even as recently as the ongoing Test series, there was speculation online that Shaheen did not gel well with captain Shan Masood.

There are always plenty of off-field distractions in Pakistan cricket, and one centred around Shaheen cannot have been good for the mental state of a player who has barely turned 24 years old.

The physical side of things

The other aspect of Shaheen's drop-off is physical. The symptoms are clear – in the first Test against Bangladesh, Shaheen barely clocked in at 135 kph on the speedgun. In stark contrast, he was measured at an average of 140 kph in his last series against them in November 2021. It was a similar story during the tour of Australia last December.

For a bowler who is still young, this dramatic drop in pace is neither ideal, nor normal. Whether Shaheen has long-term issues or may be nursing an injury or two is unknown, but the PCB does not have a great record when it comes to managing his fitness.

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In 2022, Shaheen suffered an injury to the ligaments in his right knee in Galle, during a Test match against Sri Lanka. He was rushed back for the T20 World Cup, perhaps earlier than he should have been. In the final of the tournament, his knee buckled as he completed a catch, and he had to leave the field in tears.

Former all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez called Pakistan's handling of the injury 'criminal', and Shahid Afridi took it upon himself to reveal the lack of assistance provided by the PCB to his then son-in-law-to-be in the recovery process.

While he is now, on paper, fully recovered from the injury, one can only speculate from outside how much Shaheen trusts it to hold up. The PCB's handling of the knock may have bordered on shambolic, but he is not blameless in this respect either. He has remained a fixture on the franchise T20 circuit, with 25 matches played since 2023 outside of internationals and the Pakistan Super League. In fact, he may well have played more if not for the PCB's new 'PSL plus two' rule for centrally-contracted players.

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A combination of his willingness to take part in T20 cricket across the globe and poor management of a vital injury (the right foot is the one that lands when he bowls) are almost certainly contributors to his poor form. Even before the injury, Shaheen was never the most athletic cricketer.

Add to this that his workload within matches is as high as anyone else's. Since his Test debut, only eight pacers have bowled over 1000 overs. He is one of them. Five of these players have played significantly more matches, but the other two with similar playing time are Jasprit Bumrah, who is meticulously managed by the BCCI and Kemar Roach, who plays next to no white-ball cricket.

Being dropped could do Shaheen a world of good

The answer to 'How did we get to Shaheen Shah Afridi being dropped?' is not a straightforward one. If one had to untangle everything that has gone on, it would take more than a long while to truly get to the bottom of things.

Shaheen is entering a new phase of his life, both professionally and personally. It is the first time since his debut that he has been dropped for performance-related reasons, and last week he became a father for the very first time. Jason Gillespie noted the latter in his press conference, although that did not appear to be the primary reason for Shaheen's exclusion.

But whether he has been given time off to spend with his family or he has been dropped, being away from the harsh spotlight of Pakistan cricket, with the chance to work on his fitness and his game might be the best thing for Shaheen. In almost every way, he may now have the chance to start afresh.

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