What happened to the responsible Afridi?
After Afridi starred in the Pakistan’s victory in the first Odi, there was a headline in all the major Pakistani newspapers “Responsible Afridi wants to win more”. Nobody knows how to manage the media better than Shahid Afridi in Pakistan team, the guy knows the art to sell himself, he knows when to speak and when to stay quite.
I bet you that not many of us didn’t knew that the 70 runs Afridi scored against New Zealand was his first fifty after 33 Odi matches, but for moment it seemed to me as if it is coming out of the mouth of a player who scores a 50 every fourth match, his statements after one rare batting performance are always full of reassurance and loaded with false hopes, but the funny thing is that we always buy it.
After years of pathetic performance with the bat Afridi scored two back to back match winning 50’s in the T20 WC after which he was immediately made the T20 captain. Younis Khan must be sitting on a prayer mat tonight thanking the Almighty that Afridi didn’t scored another 50 in the 2nd Odi against Newzealand because if he had done so, YK’s dream of leading Pakistan in WC2010 would have ended prematurely.
Afridi scored a first ball duck today going the ariel route the first ball he faced, which made me think what happened to the responsible Afridi? Was he on Vacation today? Will we see him again after 33 matches or sooner? Nothing predicts behaviour like behaviour if that is correct then his next match winning batting performance will come after a few series but rest assured you will continue to get false assurances in the mean time,
More from this category
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More from this author
- Ashamed to be a Pakistani
- Afridi and Ejaz Butt again ignore Younis Khan
- Why Pakistan team bends over so easily
- Kamran Akmal the pretend wicket keeper
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I m sorry Mr. Author the way you think. If you are mentioning Afridi’s batting performance, then take a look over his bowling aswell. He is in the team for his bowling first then his batting. He is playing all around game & mostly he is pushed in ODIs when 4-5 overs are left. But for the bowling he has been striking & economical aswell. Lets look at your YK. Goodness me, he has an average of 25runs per match this year. Shouldn’t we promote Mohd. Amir in place of him & add another allrounder (Rana Naveed, who is scoring the same runs as of Younis). And what do you comment on YKs team selection? He axed Imran Nazir for his rapid scoring ability. Even tho he was givin more than YKs average runs. and how about Umar akmal? Man averaging 50 plus shall be kept for rest before winning a series & Mr. YK should play whole CT with broken finger ? Seriously, i felt pity when he risigned but now really feeling it a necessity when no body likes him in the team. He should respect himself
Wasim,
I was recently talking with Maz about Geoffrey Boycott’s assertion that Afridi was the best all-rounder in the modern game. I had to disagree and it was on that very point - his batting consistency. His bowling is top class but to be the best all-rounder you have to be more consistent with the bat which Afridi just is not.
I used to admire Geoffrey for his straight talking but I think he’s getting a bit old now.
Hussan
Read my post again nowhere in my post or any of my previous posts praised Younis Khan. I have also only touched the topic of Afridi’s batting performance, I know his bowling has been fine. Please pay attention to the reference to the context.
Stani
Thats what I was talking about he even turned Boycott into a believer by playing just one good knock after 33 matches.
I’ve not heard what Boycott said but from what you guys are saying , I think that what he meant was that Afridi might be more consistent.
Obviously he batted well in 3 matches in the T20 world cup, in an ODI against SL in SL, in the T20 against SL in SL and more recently against NZ. I think what Boycott might be trying to say is that when you combine this with his terrific bowling (quicker, slower, straight, googly, leg spin, drift) and his good fielding then it’s not bad because normally when Afridi comes out he has to hit it from the off because he comes towards the end when you’re looking to score at least a run a ball.
The best way to think about it is which player would you rather not play against in ODI/T20:
Sakib
Yuvraj
Kallis
Afridi
Oram
Malik
Flintoff
Jayusuriya
Watson
Collingwood
My personal opinion would be Afridi.
Ahbd
No doubt Afridi performed well in the T20 WC and played the most important role in Pakistan’s victory, he surprised the whole world by his reformed style of batting previously which was thought of him to be incapable of. And there is no question about his consistency as a bowler.
Boycott was discussing him as an allrounder and when you analyze a player as an allrounder you also discuss his whole game and not just his dominant skill.
This was his first Odi 50 after 33 Odis. You cannot compare somebody with other great allrounders when you have such inconsistent batting record.
Is Afridi a match winner? Absolutely.
But is he fully reformed? And should we believe that he is capable of taking the major load of batting as Inzamam, Younis and Yousaf carried for so long for Pakistan. Absolutely not.
I was only discussing his smart media mangement and the strong assurances he gives after every series in a light way.
I’m definitely with you on his media management. Obviously everyone buys into him because there’s nothing better in cricket to watch Afridi at his best. But I think that he’s quite clever in that during matches he always encouraging and going up to the bowlers and the cameras and the fans obviously pick this up.
Personally, I think Afridi is all of a sudden responsible etc because he wants to be captain in ODI’s but also since he’s captain of T20 and wants to keep it.
I don’t think Younis will come back. Younis should focus on tests/ODI because they are challenging enough for a Pakistan captain as it is. Plus, we have a lot of players suitable for T20 such as Nazir…
Ahbd
The problem is that YK is not performing since last 14 months. He is the main batsman of our team alongwith Yousaf and hold the most important #3 position if he fails as a batsman he can survive but if he fails as a batsman while he is a captain he will face a lot of extra criticism. We are always very harsh on our captains.
Afridi on the other hand suddenly started playing responsibly probably he knows if he performs now this is the best chance for him to become the captain of the team.
Forget about all the politics he is playing as long as he is performing and Younis not their is a good chance that he will replace Younis after the Australian series.
Ahbd, Wasim,
I think because Afridi has performed well in the last two major tournaments, people are actually giving him a false all-rounder rating. We’re human, we tend to remember the most recent events, it’s in our nature to.
From the list Ahbd has given, if you ask which player would you not want to play against in a one off t20/ODI, then the answer may be Afridi. If the question is which would you not want to play against in a series of t20s or ODIs, then the answer will probably not be Afridi. Why? He’s simply not consistent enough.
Stani
Cricket fans generally have short term memory. A couple of good performances and we forgive and forget every thing, hoping that the player has reformed. But general attitude/temprament and technique are often not examined by an ordinary fan. Hence we the Asian cricket fans mostly make flawed judgements about players.
The problem is that Afridi will make it to any ODI/ T20 team just on the basis of his bowling, we don’t have his replacement as a bowler.
http://newsx.com/story/61996
Pakistan rested Mohammad Yousaf in today’s game and Umar Akmal made a return. Pakistan’s team management calls it a rotation policy but in my opinion it is a quota system where most players are told before the series how many games they are going to get in a series.
Not to play Yousaf in the final match of the series is in my opinion too risky especially when Younis himself is out of form.
Umar Akmal should have replaced one of the openers especially Butt.
You cannot drop a player like Yousaf, in the last match Yousaf should have come at #3 but came at # 6. I think Younis is mishandling the team in this respect.
New zealand got a good start today again courtsey of McCullum, all the pakistani pacers got thrashed in their first spell. Razzaq bowled so poorly that Younis had to change him after 3 overs, I wonder after the last match’s performance why Pakistan didn’t gave a game to Wahab Riaz or Rao Iftikhar.
Why Younis didn’t made this change in the last match when Razzaq was bowling dolly’s and was going for so many runs.
The spinners brought Pakistan back in the game today, Malik, Afridi and Ajmal bowled well and ran through the Kiwi batting line up.
212 is the target for Pakistan, for any other team it might be an easy target but Pakistan team is known for making a match out of nothing and gifting matches to the opposition.
AHBD
That is old news. Qasim Omar has a grudge against Miandad and Imran. He is not accusing the current team as much as he accuses Imran’s team which is nothing but rubbish.
Same old story a Pakistan having a perfect start, the first opener gets out Younis Khan comes in struggles to score brings down the RR (3 off 16) runs out his partner in a desperate attempt to get away from strike. And then soon after gets out himself too.
It’s a shame what has PCB seen in this moron that we so desperately want him to be the captain of our ODI team. He is just a fool who pretends that he is Imran Khan he is an ordinary player and an ordinary captain and thats it.
I knew it this will happen, the wicket was assisting spin and I knew we made a big mistake by leaving Yousaf out probably the best player of spin in Pak team, why couldn’t My phannay Khan realize that.
i love afridi …i want afridi to be a captain of pak team…