Heat star Nathan McSweeney is confident that prized Brisbane recruit Shaheen Shah Afridi will find his bowling form on Friday night against the Perth Scorchers after a horror start to his BBL career.
Playing for the first time in a BBL game, the Pakistani left-arm quick had a night to forget in Brisbane’s 14-run loss to the Melbourne Renegades in Geelong on Monday.
Afridi finished with the figures of 0-45 from 2.4 overs, and had to be removed from the Heat’s attack after bowling two full-toss no-balls above waist height in the same over.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done in the past, each game’s different and we saw that on Monday night,” McSweeney said on Wednesday.
“With so much international experience, you can still get it wrong … when you bowl yorkers, sometimes you get it wrong. We’re not robots, we don’t always execute the way want to.
“No doubt that he’s a quality international player and he’ll bounce back. At training today, he trained so hard and it’s very impressive the way he’s carried himself on and off the field, and he’ll be looking forward to bouncing back on Friday, no doubt.
“The beauty about Shaheen is that he is very calm and collected.”
McSweeney was hopeful that key spinner Matt Kuhnemann would return to Brisbane’s bowling attack for Friday’s Gabba clash after missing the loss in Geelong with a side strain.
However, paceman Michael Neser is set to remain with Australia’s squad in Adelaide despite not being selected in the third Test team.
Read related topics:BrisbanePerth
