Shaheen Afridi's exclusion from ICC's Test player nominees leaves Pakistanis astonished

• Shaheen has taken 47 wickets in nine Test matches.
• ICC nominates Karunaratne, Jamieson, Ashwin, and Root.
• Twitter argues that Shaheen had an excellent year in Test.

Cricketing fans in Pakistan were left shocked when the International Cricket Council excluded fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi from the list of nominees for the Men’s Test Player of the Year 2021 award.

The ICC has nominated Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne, New Zealand’s Kyle Jamieson, India’s Ravichandran Ashwin, and England’s Joe Root.

Taking to Twitter, netizens noted that Shaheen had an excellent year in the longest form of cricket.

Sports journalist Saj Sadiq said: “Surprised that Shaheen Shah Afridi, who took 47 wickets (2nd highest) at an average of 17.06, is not included.”

Another sports journalist, Arsalan Siddique, said that Shaheen performed phenomenally this year, pointing out that the pacer bagged 47 wickets in just nine matches and yet his name was not included in the nominees’ list.

Yet another, Arfa Feroz Zake noted that both Shaheen and Hasan Ali have been excluded from the list.