Former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has credited former Indian all-rounder and the current coach of the Indian team, Ravi Shastri, for giving him his nickname 'Boom Boom'.
The all-rounder had an interaction session with his fans on Twitter and answered to a lot of the questions posed by them. One of those questions was who gave him the name 'Boom Boom', something that has been associated with him during his playing days.
Afridi conceded that it was Ravi Shastri gave him the name when he was in the commentary box. Afridi is known for hitting huge sixes whenever he comes out to bat and that could be the reason why he was given that name by the Indian coach. Afridi, in his 524 games for Pakistan across all three formats, has hit as many as 476 sixes, which is the joint most by any player along with West Indies international Chris Gayle.
Afridi also started his career by smashing a 37-ball century against Sri Lanka in his very first international innings in 1996. Since then, he has scored 11196 runs across all three formats. He was a lot more threatening with the ball as he took 541 wickets including 7/12 in an ODI against West Indies, which is the second-best bowling figures in an ODI.
Interestingly, a fan asked Afridi about his favourite bowling performance in a match and the 38-year-old has picked his spell of 7/12 as his favourite. Afridi also stated that his 141 against India in the 1999 Chennai Test, which his team famously won by 12 runs in spite of a fighting century from Sachin Tendulkar, remains his favourite century ahead of his 37-ball ton against the Lankans.
He also praised Indian offie Harbhajan Singh during the session and picked Pakistani great and their Prime Minister Imran Khan as his favourite personality.