Shahid Afridi lashes out at Shoaib Akhtar's 'Shaheen could've used pain-killers for T20 WC final' remark

Pakistan cricket team were still competing for the championship, until the 16th over of England's chase, despite posting a below-par total in the T20 World Cup final. The fiery bowling attack of the Pakistan team had put England on backfoot with even Ben Stokes struggling to get runs.

However, Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi injured his knee, once again, this time while taking a catch, which led to the star bowler missing his final two overs. Captain Babar Azam brought in Iftikhar Ahmed to bowl out Shaheen's incomplete third over and England capitalised on it to race away with the trophy.

Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar was unhappy with Shaheen missing out those two crucial overs and felt that he should have risked everything as it was the World Cup final. Akhtar further went on to say that Shaheen could have taken painkillers instead.

"When your main bowler becomes unfit, then it creates problem for you. Shaheen (Afridi) was never fully fit, but we cannot put the entire blame on him as he bowled well in the past 2-3 matches. But this is World Cup final. Even if the leg breaks. Whatever happens, happens. Just keep running and do something. But this was not in our fortune," he had told.

"When you numb your feet, the pain is not felt. Yes, you are risking the career of the young man. It is a World Cup final, whether you can risk or not that you have to think as a captain. It is a tough decision," Akhtar added.

When ex-Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi was asked the same in his interview with Samaa TV, Afridi slamed his former teammate saying that painkillers have a lot of side effects on the body and should be only taken in a disciplined manner.

"Nehin, nehin, nehin...main nehin samajhta ki yeh jayas baat hai. Painkillers sirf akhti taur pe hota hai. Humne bhi bohot dafa kiya hai. But uske bhi side effects bohot saare hote hai. Kyunki uss time toh sunn ho jati hai and pain khatam ho jati hai, but pain aur zyada bar jaati hai next day (No, no…not at all, it's wrong. Painkillers should be taken in a disciplined manner. I too used to take it. But it has a lot of side effects. It does numb the pain for a while, but after the match day, it tends to pain even more)," he said.

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