KARACHI: Pakistan’s former captain and a prolific all-rounder Shahid Afridi has been under the scanner for his mediocre batting form throughout last year, and has been advised by several former players and teammates to take a break from the game.

Former captain Rashid Latif, however, has suggested that the star revisit his decision to retire from domestic competition to get back into rhythm.

“I have not seen a problem with Afridi’s fitness in the past year. His batting strike rate was also impressive but the fact of the matter is that he spent very little time at the wicket for his runs. Every batsman needs to give himself time to regain the lost touch and this is where Afridi lacked in the recent past,” Latif said.

“Afridi scored 182 runs in 13 ODI innings he played in 2012, but faced only 179 deliveries,” the former gloveman pointed out.

Latif further said that unlike others who faced a similar lean patch, Afridi was not playing the longer-versions of the domestic events and therefore not working out his problems.

“Younis, Misbah, Hafeez and others have been through bad patches, however, they overcame the hindrance by scoring heavily in the domestic events by spending time in the middle. Afridi should do the same, I feel.”

Shahid Afridi, who has played 27 Test matches for Pakistan, took retirement from the longest version in July 2010. In Test matches, the all-rounder has scored 1716 runs at an average of 36.51, and notched up five centuries.