Shaheen Afridi gives fitness updates, confirms his participation in PSL 8

Afridi won the PSL 2022 with Lahore Qalandars (Twitter)

Pakistan's terrorising seamer, Shaheen Afridi, has been struggling with fitness after getting his knee twisted last year in the Galle Test against Sri Lanka. Since then, he has missed a whole of cricket, i.e. the Asia Cup 2022 and the historic Test series against England and New Zealand.

Debuted in 2018, the Pakistan seamer is best known for his breathtaking spell against India in the T20 World Cup of 2021 before Virat Kohli denaturalised the Shaheen effect in the 2022 T20 World Cup.

To everyone's relief, the Lahore Qalandars' captain has started bowling furious spells in the nets and has confirmed his participation in the upcoming edition of the Pakistan Super League, where his team will head in as the defending champions.

While talking on PCB Digital, the 22-year-old spoke about how tough it had been for him to regain fitness.  

"There were times when I wanted to give up. I was working on only one muscle and it was not improving. Often during the rehabilitation sessions, I used to say to myself ‘this is enough, I cannot do this anymore," Afridi explained.

"But then I used to watch my bowling on YouTube and see how well I had done and that motivated me and I told myself ‘to push a little more’ … It is frustrating for a fast bowler to miss cricket because of an injury." 

Further in the conversation, the left-armer talked about his injury phase, when he wanted to play cricket for his country, but his body didn't allow so.

"It is tough when you miss your home games because of the injury. Before our Test home season, I even missed the seven England T20Is. I was more distressed for missing the Tests, because I like Test cricket more. A bowler is measured on how he performs in Test cricket and I wanted to take wickets against England," he further added.

At last, Afridi heaped praise on PSL, calling it one of the best leagues in the world. Later, he also confirmed he would be taking part in the league.

"PSL is one of the best leagues in the world and the quality of cricket tests you as a bowler. I am very excited to be making my comeback here and look forward to all the challenges that it will throw at me. Thanks to Almighty, I am doing well. I am ticking both the bowling workload and fitness requirement boxes," the seamer confirmed.

PSL 8 will begin with a star-studded clash between Lahore and Multan Sultans, scheduled for February 13 at the Multan Cricket Stadium. This season of PSL is expected to be an enthralling one, as all the teams have got juggled before the season to maintain the quality of the tournament.

Read More: Aakash Chopra urges Rahul Tripathi to step up in T20I decider