Aussies Not impressed by Boom Boom Afridi
Pakistan and Australia are going to clash as per scheduled in July in England where both the teams will play two T20 matches followed by two Tests. This is Pakistan’s home series shifted to England grounds because of security reasons.
Ricky Ponting is skipper of Kangaroos while Green Shirts will be lead by 30-year-old dashing all-rounder, Shahid Afridi.
Aussies successful captain is quite confident that the Kangaroos can get the better of the new Pakistan Skipper, Shahid Afridi during the two Test matches in England next month.
Afridi will be Pakistan’s third captain in test matches since the start of 2009 and Ponting is incredulous that he is one of the best 11 Test players from Pakistan. Ponting is confident that the pace attack of Aussies would be able to offset Afridi's aggressive style in the five-day game.
Ponting said that he is pretty sure that it would be quite easy to tackle Green Shirts under Afridi’s captaincy. He said that the newly appointed Pakistani skipper has not played much Test cricket of late. He added that if you read between the lines Afridi is selected almost as a leader or captain and not necessarily a best Test player of their side. He said that Australian’s are ready to test him out.
"Even in the one -dayers in Australia last season with our quick bowling the way they did to him, I think we can sort him out in Test cricket for sure. I see Shoaib Malik's life ban has been lifted as well, so who knows what happens around their set-up, but we know they're a dangerous team,” said the Australian Captain.
He said that being T20 captain, it was an expected development for him to be the Test skipper, although all the rest of the guys have also tried there but failed to succeed. But all this is besides the point stuff for Kangaroos, he further added. Who is captain, who is in and who is out does not matter.
“That’s all irrelevant stuff to us, it doesn't matter who is captain and it doesn't matter who is playing, we just have to make sure we're focusing on front to be the best team we can be when we play them".
The two Tests against Pakistan at Lord's and Headingly might be Australia's last five-day excursion ahead of the Ashes, even though their tour of India in October could yet take in two Test matches. However, Ponting said it is important to focus upon the challenge that Pakistan side will pose and not to look too far ahead.
"I guess we speak pretty loosely don't we about looking forward to the Ashes and all that, and we are, but it's not with both eyes," he said. "We've got one eye on that and one eye on what we need to get in place to make sure we're the best team we can be for November".
So far Pakistan and Australia have played total 55 test matches. Australia has won 27 matches while Pakistan could impress the audience in just 11 matches, 17 ended in a draw. Pakistan’s win percentage is 20% as compared to the Loss percentage of more or less 50%.
So far Afridi has played 26 test matches scoring 1,683 runs with an average of 37.40 runs. His highest score in any test match is 156 runs. AKA Boom Boom Afridi plays aggressively in test cricket as well and has remarkably high strike rate of 86.13. On the bowling side he has gotten 47 wickets.
Since 2006 Afridi has not played a first class match. Afridi has played 44 matches against Australia, in all the three cricket formats, and has only scored two half-centuries with a highest score of 58 runs.
Ponting has impressed the cricket lovers in 144 test matches scoring 11928 runs with an average of 55.22 runs. The highest score of Ponting in any test match is 257 runs. As far as Ponting’s test bowling is concerned, he has bowled 539 balls with 5 balls catching a prey.
Green Shirts, under Afridi’s captaincy, will leave for England on June 29 where they will play their first T20 match against Australia on 5th July.
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