The Shaheen Shah Afridi T20I record is now official: on 24 February 2026, at Pallekele in Sri Lanka, Shaheen took 4 for 30 against England in the T20 World Cup Super Eight stage and passed Haris Rauf to become Pakistan’s all time leading wicket taker in Twenty20 internationals, a mark he still holds.
Shaheen Shah Afridi T20I record: how the mark fell
- Record match: Pakistan vs England, T20 World Cup Super Eight, Pallekele, 24 February 2026
- His figures: 4 for 30 in four overs, including Phil Salt, Jos Buttler and Jacob Bethell
- The passing moment: the wicket of Jacob Bethell, his third of the match, took him past Haris Rauf
- Previous holder: Haris Rauf, 133 wickets in 94 matches
- Shaheen’s tally after the record match: 135 wickets in 102 T20Is (average 21.15, best 4 for 22)
- Tally at the end of the 2026 T20 World Cup: 136 wickets in 103 matches, with 8 wickets in the tournament
- Powerplay record: 60 wickets in the first six overs, passing Tim Southee’s 58, the most by any bowler in T20I history at the time
A note on the numbers, because published totals genuinely conflict: live scorecards during the England match put Shaheen on 134 mid-innings, agency reports at the close had him on 135 from 102 matches, and end-of-tournament summaries list 136 from 103 after Pakistan’s final World Cup fixture on 28 February. All three are snapshots of the same week. The fixed point is 24 February 2026, the day the record changed hands.
Photo: Hasindu2008, via Wikimedia Commons
The race with Haris Rauf
For two years the top of Pakistan’s T20I bowling chart was a two-man race between its two fastest bowlers. Rauf, the late-blooming tearaway from Rawalpindi, reached 133 wickets in only 94 matches, a strike rate few in the world game can match. Shaheen, three years younger and the leader of the attack since his teens, kept pace match by match while also carrying the new-ball burden in all three formats.
The same England innings that gave Shaheen the T20I record also moved him up Pakistan’s all-formats chart: his 391st international wicket took him past Abdul Razzaq into ninth place on Pakistan’s overall list, within sight of 400 wickets across formats. Pakistan lost the match at Pallekele, chasing England’s 165, which is why the record arrived quietly, in a defeat, rather than in a celebration.
Where Shaheen stands in world T20I bowling
Pakistan’s record and the world record are different conversations. Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan leads all bowlers in T20I history with more than 190 wickets, followed by Tim Southee (164) and Ish Sodhi (162). Shaheen’s 136 places him among the leading fast bowlers in the format’s history, and he reached the Pakistan record in fewer years than any of his predecessors because of how early he started: he debuted in T20Is in 2018 as an 18-year-old from Landi Kotal, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and has been Pakistan’s first-choice new-ball bowler almost without interruption since.
The powerplay figure may be his most distinctive record. Sixty wickets inside the first six overs, passing Southee’s career mark, reflects the role Shaheen has made his own: swing with the new ball, wickets before the field spreads. It is the same skill on show in home season stories such as the ODI tri-series final in Lahore, and in the short-format hitting of Pakistan’s Hong Kong Sixes campaign.
The bowler behind the record
The career numbers show a bowler built for the format’s hardest job. At the record match, Shaheen’s T20I line read 135 wickets at an average of 21.15, with best figures of 4 for 22 and four four-wicket hauls. Across all international cricket he stood at 391 wickets from 206 matches, including seven five-wicket hauls and a ten-wicket match, with best figures of 6 for 35. He has also carried responsibilities beyond the new ball, captaining Pakistan in one-day internationals. For a fast bowler whose run-up Pakistan has managed carefully through injuries, the durability behind those numbers is part of the achievement: the record was built over eight seasons, not one hot tournament.
A record that can still move
Unlike most entries on our Pakistan World Rankings and Records hub, the Shaheen Shah Afridi T20I record belongs to two active bowlers separated by a handful of wickets, and Shaheen’s own place in the T20I squad has been debated since the World Cup, with selectors leaving him out of the October 2026 series against Sri Lanka. If Rauf plays and Shaheen does not, the lead could narrow or even flip back. That is exactly why the record is dated in this article: as of 24 February 2026 it became Shaheen’s, he ended that World Cup on 136 wickets, and every future change will be reported against that baseline.
Sources
- ANI via Webindia123: Shaheen Shah Afridi becomes Pakistan’s highest T20I wicket-taker (24 February 2026)
- CricketWinner: Shaheen finished the 2026 T20 World Cup as Pakistan’s all time leading T20I wicket taker with 136 wickets
- Yardbarker (News18 CricketNext): Shaheen, Pakistan’s highest T20I wicket taker with 136 in 103 matches (October 2026 squad report)
- Featured image: Shaheen Shah Afridi in Pakistan colours during a Test match against Sri Lanka at the SSC, Colombo. Photo: Nazly Ahmed, via Wikimedia Commons
- In-body image: Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. Photo: Hasindu2008, via Wikimedia Commons
Umar is an engineer by profession and a passionate writer by passion. He has a deep interest in sharing good news related to Pakistan and has been working hard to promote the positive image of his homeland. Umar has written numerous articles on various topics related to Pakistan, such as technology, sports, culture, and economy.