Pakistani cricket has raw talent coming out of its ears but what it hasn’t always had is the ability to harness that talent, consistency, and a plan. I don’t need to go into the details of these points (unless someone specifically wants me to) because I think they well known and documented. Pakistan noticeably exhibited this short-coming in 1999 and continued to do so increasingly as the veterans retired and were replaced by young “raw” talent.

I also felt that under the leadership of Inzamam, the team did not really become as athletically inclined as it did religiously inclined. Coming back to Afridi again – the man scored well IF he ever scored… and his bowling was quite wayward. He was seen encouraging other players on the field but that always seemed very hollow to me. Also feel that moral support should not be the primary reason to keep a player in the team.

I understand that T20 is not the same as One Day Internationals or Tests but for the first time, I feel Afridi exhibited forbearance. This happened throughout the 2009 T20 World Cup. He wasn’t the highest scorer or the highest wicket taker but he was a match winner on more than one occasion. But it goes beyond match winning - as far as I’m concerned, it needs to be consistent match winning. Like the days of Sachin Tendulkar’s opening stance. If Sachin opened well for India, they usually went on to win the game- and he opened well quite often!

So what was it that a Cricket nobody like me found so interesting? The first was that Afridi’s forbearance (batting) and ingenuity (bowling) came increasing into light as the tournament progressed. I saw a plan and I saw craft. He could have lived up to his title as early as the 15th over in the final match but he didn’t. He didn’t even attempt to hit it out of the park in the manner that he normally does.

One can easily extrapolate this for the entire team. With the exception of Shahzaib Hasan (who in my opinion is a poor substitute for Salman Butt), the team came out with a plan from the first ball Mohammed Amir bowled that day. Furthermore, one could have almost expected this plan because the South Africa game seemed well thought out too (but not quite as well as the S.L. game).

Shahid Afridi is turning into a thinking Cricketer. A team player who understands that even moderation has a place in the fast pace T20 framework (I won't go into details of the match; Ithink his performance is well etched in most people's minds). Just as important is the fact that he belongs to a team that knows when to bowl short versus full length (with a slight divergence by Gul in the last few overs). More importantly for him, he is fast becoming a player with a good temperament, potentially mature head on his shoulders and a repertoire in both the bowling and batting departments that could see him through to become one of the best all-rounders in his generation.