Islamabad—Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi held the batsmen responsible for the national team’s defeat in the one-day and Twenty-20 series against England last month.
“We must realise that our bowlers can’t win us matches all the time. It is time for the batsmen to also score runs heavily. We lost to England as I thought we were a bit defensive.”
Afridi said Pakistani batsmen needed to be more consistent and support the bowlers, but ducked questions on the captaincy issue. Afridi also feels that the eagerly-awaited Pakistan-India clash in Asia Cup on March 18 at Bangladesh shouldn’t be taken as a World Cup revenge one.
“I don’t think we should look at the match against India as a revenge one. We need to treat every match with same importance and significance,” cricbuzz.com quoted Afridi as saying. Afridi said the team should be more aggressive in the Asia Cup.
“I think we need to be more aggressive in the Asia Cup and our batsmen have to play hard at the bowlers,” he said. Afridi also said he was not up to the mark against England but he will try to do my best in the Asia Cup.
“We need to overcome the mistakes we made in all departments. The Asia Cup won’t be an easy task and we’ll have to be at our best to make an impression”. Afridi, when asked if he would be willing to lead Pakistan again, said he did not want to make any comments on the captaincy.
Afridi was removed as captain by former PCB chairman Ijaz Butt after a rift with then-coach Waqar Younis and many former cricketers believe he still is the right person for the job.
However, reports are there that the PCB had promised Misbah-ul-haq the captaincy till at least the Asia Cup, so he will lead Pakistan, with Mohammed Hafeez likely to be his deputy.—APP
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