Cricketfiles.com

After almost a month of deliberation PCB has finally announced that Shahid Afridi will lead Pakistan in T20′s. Afridi was competing with vice captain Misbah Ul Haq for the job but Misbah’s indifferent form and Afridi’s performance in the T20 WC became the decisive factor.  

This will be the first time that Afridi will lead Pakistan in any format of the game. Finally his wish realized after a long struggle. 

Afridi now is an integral part of Pakistan’s Odi and T20 team, he has a charismatic personality and a huge fan following, he has been in and out of the team through out his career until he decided to focus on his bowling and created a niche for himself. Now that his dream has realized the big question is will he be able to live upto it? 

His chances of becoming a successful captain will depend mostly on his man management skills, his domestic record as a captain has been quite good , if I am not mistaken his team Dolphins has never won any tournament but they always reached the finals.  

He is naturally aggressive and is extremely active on the field, he is also experienced and smart enough to lead Pakistan at this level. But the big question is will he be able to demonstrate the maturity and temperament which is expected from a leader or will he continue to bat without having any match awareness. 

I think if he retains the same level of maturity which he displayed during the T20 world cup he will be fine and if not then it won’t take long before his dream will turn into his worst nightmare.

Shahid should use this opportunity to establish himself as the future Test and Odi captain of Pakistan team and he can only do that if the team gives better results under him in T20′s.

As regards Misbah Ul Haq he should step down as the Vice Captain of Pakistan team and should focus just on improving his form.