Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi admitted that he wanted to retire from international cricket while trying to recover from his knee injury. He was injured during the tour of Sri Lanka in August 2022 and was ruled out of the Asia Cup 2022. He made a comeback for the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 but aggravated the injury in the final against England.
He missed the home Test series against England and New Zealand. He will return to action in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2023.
“There were times when I wanted to give up. I was working only on one muscle, and it was not improving. During the rehabilitation sessions, I thought of retiring from the game as I couldn’t take it more,” he told PCB Digital.
“But I used to watch my bowling on YouTube and see how well I had bowled for my country, and that motivated me to push a little more. It was frustrating to miss cricket due to an injury,” he added.
He wanted to play in the Test series against England, which the home team lost 0-3, and was devastated to see the bowlers struggling against the aggressive cricket of the English batters.