'When Afridi's turn came...'- Waqar Younis recalls an incident involving Shahid Afridi and Indian Minister

Waqar Younis, Shahid Afridi (Source: Twitter)

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi is still regarded as one of the best ball-strikers in the game. The former right-hander, who burst onto the scene as a teenager, is the only cricketer to have hit more than 350 sixes in ODI cricket, and his record for the fastest hundred off just 37 balls against Kenya in 1996 stood for a long time before being broken by New Zealand's Corey Anderson in 2014.

Afridi focused more on his leg spin as his career progressed, but his ability to hit sixes remained. Waqar Younis, the legendary Pakistani pacer, explained he could hit big sixes due to his incredibly strong hands.

Waqar, who played a lot of cricket with Afridi and also captained him, recounted a hilarious incident to prove Afridi's strength. A prominent Indian minister came to meet them during their India tour, according to Waqar. While the rest of Pakistan's cricketers shook hands with the minister gently, Afridi gave him a hard shake.

"When Shahid Afridi first arrived. He was only 15 or 16 and very strong at that age. The first time I shook hands with him, I almost ended up sweating, he squeezed it so hard. That's probably one of the reasons why he could hit those huge sixes.

"I still remember... We were on an India tour. I know the name of the Indian minister but I won't take his name. He came to see us and welcomed us. We were all sitting together. He came and we stood up. He met everyone and greeted us. Afridi was a junior, he was standing in the back. We all shook hands gently as he was an elderly minister. When Afridi's turn came, he shook the hands so hard," Waqar said on A Sports, while other panellists Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akram burst into laughter.

Waqar did not specify the tour he was referring to, but it appears to have taken place in 1997. That year, Afridi took part in his first ODI tour of India. He played his first Test on Indian soil a few years later.