Pakistan ODI captain says backing players will bring better performances
Pakistan’s ace pacer and ODI team captain Shaheen Afridi has missed the country’s previous two major tours of the West Indies and England. He was in good form but was overlooked for those series. He has also not been drafted in the Test squad for the home series against Sri Lanka which will begin soon. He is now eyeing a return to Test cricket and expressed this desire at a news conference after guiding his side to a title-winning triumph in the ODI tri-series, which concluded at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Saturday night. “I cannot say anything about the board’s decisions. As far as Test cricket and T20 cricket are concerned, I want to make a comeback to Test cricket. For this, I am going to play a first-class game for FATA. There are still many areas for improvement, and I will work towards making a comeback,” Shaheen told reporters. Shaheen used his experience and led from the front in the ODI tri-series, finishing with ten wickets, the second highest wicket-taker of the series. Shaheen said there was a long way to go and that a couple of wins should not satisfy the team. “It’s good that Pakistan had some good moments. There is still more tough cricket ahead, with the Asia Cup and a series against England in England. One or two wins should not satisfy us. We have to win more series and matches, InshaAllah,” Shaheen said. “In the home series against Ireland, we will try to add more new players to the Shaheens team,” he said. Shaheen said that if players were backed, good performances would follow. “Players should be backed. Big decisions about players should not be taken on the basis of failures in one or two series. Fakhar Zaman is a big example. He did not score in the first four matches, but he is the kind of player who kept batting despite an injury and scored a hundred. His innings included singles and doubles also. If you back players, this type of performance will follow,” Shaheen said. He also praised Saad Baig and Arafat Minhas for their performances. “Yes, Saad and Arafat Minhas played a good series,” Shaheen said. He said Babar knew his game well. “If you talk about Babar, he knows his game and is going to play a first-class match within two days. He is clear about how to bat. Unfortunately, he faced some difficult dismissals, but that is part of cricket, and he will come back,” Shaheen said. Shaheen said the tri-series had been a good contest, adding that England and Sri Lanka were major sides. “You need such wins against teams like Sri Lanka and England. Sri Lanka have played top cricket. No one expected them to beat England, and they scored 300-plus three times. So it was a good series, and good cricket was played,” Shaheen said. “I think we played good cricket,” he added. He also defended Naseem Shah, who conceded 80 runs in the final. “Naseem was doing his best. The way things were going earlier, fast bowlers were not getting much assistance. We started bowling across the seam and thought that reverse swing could come into play towards the end. We planned to use slower balls, bouncers and yorkers to control Sri Lanka in the end. Naseem has played enough cricket. If you have to tell him what to do on every ball, then he should be playing Under-16 cricket,” Shaheen said. Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka by three wickets on Saturday night to win the tri-series. Pakistan lost just one of their five matches in the tournament.
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