Harsha Bhogle picks current best 'fab four' of bowlers

Harsha Bhogle, the renowned cricket journalist, reckons that Pakistan fast bowler Shaheen Afridi has every chance or making the ‘fab four’ in the list of bowlers. The list currently has India’s Jasprit Bumrah, Australia’s Pat Cummins, New Zealand’s Trent Boult and South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada. Bhogle feels that the seamer has come up the ranks pretty quickly in his career.

Recently, the speedster got a promotion from Category B to Category A in Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) centrally contracted players. He along with Babar Azam, the ODI and T20I captain, and Azhar Ali, the Test skipper, would be getting PKR 1.1 million (US$ 6,200 approx). The 20-year-old has led a young pace attack after Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz weren’t picked for the Bangladesh series.

Bhogle was also disappointed to see Hasan Ali falling out of the PCB contracts. “In that fast-bowling factory of the world, I only hope they produce long-term fast-bowlers because I have just noticed that Hasan Ali, who was so full of promise, has dropped out of the contract list,” Bhogle was quoted as saying in ICC’s digital show Cricket Inside Out.

I like Shaheen Afridi more than anyone else: Harsha Bhogle

“But from Pakistan, there is Naseem Shah, but the one I like more than anyone else is Shaheen Afridi. A big left-hander who has got pace, but I hope he has got the staying power. Because if you look at [Mohammad] Amir, [Mohammad] Asif, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Hasan Ali.

So many have come and gone. I am really hoping that he has the longevity,” he added. Along with Shaheen, Bhogle also picked South Africa’s Lungi Ngidi and England’s Jofra Archer, who both can break into the ‘fab four’.

Shah made his debut in the Australia tour last year when Pakistan decided to go for a number of youngsters after a disappointing home campaign versus Sri Lanka. In February, at the age of 16, he became the youngest to take a Test hat-trick against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi.

As far as Shaheen is concerned, he plays all the three formats and currently has 86 wickets from 39 matches with seven four-wicket hauls and a couple of fifers. He first came to the fore in the 2018 U19 World Cup in New Zealand and in the same year he made his debut for the national side.