WATCH: Legality of Shaheen Afridi’s bowling action questioned
Day Three of the ongoing Test match between West Indies and Pakistan had started with West Indies on 251/8 but Shaheen Afridi came on to bowl and knocked over the last two wickets with deadly in-swinging yorkers to keep West Indies’ lead to just 36.
However, there is a small speculation. The legality of Afridi’s action was questioned in West Indies’ first innings and it came when he picked up those last two wickets (Jomel Warrican and Joshua Da Silva).
According to the International Cricket Council (ICC) rules, the bowlers can extend their arms to a maximum of 15 degrees while delivering the ball. If there is anything suspicious in the bowling action of a particular bowler, then the on-field umpire’s can report the action and need to submit a report.
“An Illegal Bowling Action is where a player is throwing rather than bowling the ball. This is defined by the ICC as being where the player’s elbow extends by an amount of more than 15 degrees between their arm reaching the horizontal and the ball being released. Match Officials in international cricket use the naked eye and their cricketing experience to decide whether they believe a player may be using an Illegal Bowling Action and, if so, they will submit a report,” the ICC’s rule on illegal action reads.
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There was a video uploaded on Twitter which questioned the premier Pakistan left-arm fast bowler’s action. The video had Afridi picking up the last two wickets of the West Indies’ first innings in a speed slower than normal.
Is he chucking?
pic.twitter.com/9TnDwKbTSU
— Jabjabavas (@jabjabavas) August 15, 2021
It will be interesting to see if the umpires noticed any such bending of the arm from Afridi throughout the Test match and while taking those two wickets, in particular. This happened on the third day and we are well into the fourth afternoon and nothing has been reported as of now.