Afridi in T20 arena

Mercurial, brilliant, aggressive, dominant, vulnerable, frustrating and unfortunately for Pakistan an underachiever, it is safe to say cricket never has and never will witness another Shahid Afridi, the cricketer who lives up to the tag of "Boom Boom" whenever he steps on to the field, even if it is for a ball or two.

Having retired from one-day cricket after the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, Shahid Afridi is solely focused on his T20 career, the format probably tailor-made to his style of cricket. He played a major role in Pakistan's ICC World Twenty20 triumph in 2009 and cemented his reputation as one of the most sought out cricketers in the world, featuring in all the major T20 leagues from the Big Bash in Australia to BPL in Bangladesh.

Shahid Afridi has played 77 matches for Pakistan, a record for the most T20 matches in a career. He averages 19 runs with the bat; 54 not out is his highest score which he made during the final of the 2009 World Twenty20 tournament against Sri Lanka at Lord's. As a bowler, Afridi's international T20 record looks more promising as he is the third highest wicket-taker with 81 wickets to his name. His economy rate is quite impressive with 6.48 runs per over. Afridi's best bowling figure of 4/11 came against Netherlands at Lord's in 2009.

Afridi has played seven T20 matches against Bangladesh, and going by the stats, he has not been as dominant as he would like to be. In six innings, he has scored 120 runs at an average of 20. His highest score of 39 runs came in the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in 2007 at Cape Town. He has picked up seven wickets in these seven matches, and his best bowling performance of 2/26 came in the fourth match of the Twenty20 Quadrangular in Kenya in 2007.

The only T20 match of Pakistan's tour of Bangladesh will be played at Mirpur Stadium on Friday, April 24, 2015. Will Shahid Afridi be a deciding factor in the match, or will he fail to deliver to the frustration of his diehard fans. Only time will tell.