Shahid Afridi, Pakistan’s One Day and Twenty20 captain, is confident that his team will put up a strong show in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 set to begin from 19 February. The mega event will be co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Shahid Afridi shared his views while talking to a leading sports channel in Pakistan. He said that the victory in the Test match against New Zealand in their home conditions is a positive sign for the team and it will boost the morale massively.
Afridi stated, “The team’s morale is high after winning the first match at Hamilton. There has been an improvement in the performance of the players which is a positive sign for us heading to the World Cup.”
He further said that leading a young team is nothing less than a challenge for him and he has always tried to deliver his best. Afridi was the captain of the team when Pakistan lost the Twenty20 series against New Zealand 2-1 in December 2010.
However, Misbah-ul-Haq took over captaincy for the Test series. Although the team was not expected to perform well in bouncy conditions, Misbah and his men did a fantastic job by outclassing the Kiwis with a ten-wicket victory.
Afridi stated that he has been trying to improve the performance of the team since he was made the captain of the One Day and Twenty20 team. He said, “It is a challenge to lead a young side but I have been working hard to improve the performance of the team since I was made captain and I am hopeful of a good show by the players in the World cup.”
Afridi was made the Test captain for the 2010 home series against Australia played in England but he announced his retirement from Test cricket soon after the first match. His deputy Salman Butt was given charge of the team and since then, the team has been under a cloud of spot-fixing.
Butt, along with Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, was suspended by the International Cricket Council after the tour for their alleged involvement in spot-fixing during the fourth Test match against England at Lord’s. The ICC heard their cases in Doha from 6 January 2011 to 11 January and decided to defer the verdict until February.
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