Pakistan team's opening batter Fakhar Zaman highly rated his teammate Shaheen Shah Afridi who is recognised as a frontline bowler in the national team.
Speaking Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)'s podcast, Fakhar said Shaheen is really a good bowler, and playing against him is difficult.
"Shaheen has proved himself as a tougher bowler," said the left-handed batter. "It is tougher to bat against Shaheen than Mitchell Starc or Trent Boult," he added.
Shaheen has represented Pakistan in 25 Tests, 36 ODIs, and 52 T20Is since his debut in 2018. After Mohammad Amir, Shaheen became the backbone of Pakistan's pace attack.
During the last year, Shaheen suffered a knee injury which ruled him out of cricket action for more than two months. He returned to play World Cup in Australia last year but got injured in the final of the tournament.
After the mega event, he once again missed the cricket for a couple of months.
Fakhar, who has represented Pakistan in 70 one-day internationals, also talked about the change in his technique.
"After 2016, my batting technique has changed a bit. I tried to work on my flaws and bring improvement to my game. I worked more on my power-hitting," he asserted.
Fakhar has recently become the third Pakistani batter to score three consecutive centuries in ODIs. Before him, Saeed Anwar, Zaheer Abbas, and Babar Azam (twice) achieved this feat.
- Trent Boult