“Workload management is looked at before a player is brought in,” says PCB head selector Haroon Rasheed about Shaheen Afridi’s return to Test cricket.

Shaheen Afridi, Pakistan’s leading pace bowler, is on his way to making a big comeback in Test cricket. He is aiming for the two-match Test series in Sri Lanka that starts on July 16 to return to the red-ball version.

Shaheen Afridi life was all over the place in 2022. He hurt a muscle in his knee in July of last year, so he couldn’t play in the Asia Cup, which was held in the United Arab Emirates. Without their best fast bowler, Pakistan made it to the regional finals but fell short by 23 runs to the Dasun Shanaka-led team.

Shaheen was in a race against time to get back in shape before the T20 World Cup in Australia, so he did a lot of hard workouts to make sure he was ready. Pakistan played England in a seven-game T20I series at home, but Shaheen wasn’t able to play in any of them for the Green Brigade.

He was cleared in time for the T20 World Cup, and he helped the 2009 T20 World Champions win the event by taking the most wickets. He took 11 wickets in seven games, which is a good rate of 6.15. He hurt himself again when he dove to try to catch a ball during the final match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

After that, he couldn’t play cricket much and didn’t get enough match practice before the Pakistan Super League in 2023. He was the leader of his team, the Lahore Qalandars, and helped them win the season. Shaheen Afridi played in 12 games during the tournament and took 19 wickets.

Now that a Test comeback is possible, Shaheen Afridi might have to work hard on the slow pitches in Sri Lanka. Pakistan’s top selector, Haroon Rasheed, also said that the 23-year-old pacer needs more game time after coming back from injury.

“Before we decide anything about a player’s task, we talk to a whole group of doctors, and a player’s personal choice is also taken into account. Shaheen hasn’t been in shape for the last year and a half. When a player returns from an illness, he needs more cricket, but not in the nets. You can come to nets and just bowl. But health for a game is different,” Rasheed told Cricket Pakistan.

“We have also asked the county to let Shaheen Afridi play a three-day match so that he can bowl more overs.

After thinking about all of these things, we all came to the same conclusion about whether or not he should be on the team. We’ve done everything after a lot of study, but that doesn’t mean we don’t think about how much work it will be. “Players are brought in after a detailed look at how they handle their workload,” he said.