Of all the players in the IPL if there is one person who would relate one hundred per cent with the T20 game, Shahid Afridi. The swashbuckling Pakistani is always experimenting and innovating, and has the best element of surprise.
And at a shoot in Mumbai for his team's promo Afridi was said to be at home, facing the camera.
At the pre-match conference ahead of the game against Mumbai Indians, Team Hyderabad skipper VVS Laxman was asked if he considered the option of opening with Afridi. His reply wasthat Afridi was useful anywhere in the order. Imagine the flamboyant all-rounder Afridi at one end and Adam Gilchrist at the other. It could well be Mayhem Inc. It could happen if the team has to chase 250-plus. They also have Herschelle Gibbs!
So what does the Pakistani showman feel about the IPL? "It's early days. But it's been a good experience so far. It has been great meeting old foes like Laxman and Symonds."
Asked about the challenges of the T20 game, Afridi replied in the true manner of a Pathan that he is. "There is pressure. The fun of the game is trying to live up to expectations." Most players buckle under this pressure.
Asked if he missed playing for a Pakistan team in Mumbai, Afridi said, "Mumbai fans were good to me, it's the same all over India."
He added he had a lot of friends in Hyderabad where his IPL team is based and plays its next game on Thursday. Afridi said he would love to have his family join him "if they get the visa."
After IPL, Afridi has an offer to play for Glamorgan to play county cricket. In the wake of the Harbhajan Singh incident and IPL's commitment towards upholding the Spirit of Cricket, Afridi has to tread his way with care. There were signs of the old 'masti' surfacing when he was up against Shane Warne at Jaipur.
Afridi's eye contact with Warne in the penultimate over boomeranged. Someone would pay. And it was Warne's fellow Aussie who did in that final over onslaught when, with 17 needed, victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat.
Like Sreesanth who got away with his provocations against Bhajji, Afridi, the provoker, also got away in the Shoaib Akhtar-Mohamed Asif spat.