Misbah-ul-Haq denies team rift over captaincy
Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq has denied rumours that there is a rift in the team because of the captaincy issue.
The middle-order batsman, who played a match-winning knock against the Black Caps in the fourth One-day International at Napier, expressed his satisfaction over the leadership of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 in the limited-over format of the game.
According to him, the whole team is united and looking forward to win the series against New Zealand. He said the preparations for the ICC World Cup 2011 are going in the right direction with all the major players finding form at the right time.
“I think Shahid Afridi is doing a good job. We have no problems and whoever is the captain, we will go out there and play our game. Everybody is in good form. That's a good thing for the team. Everybody's contributing and getting scores; even the bowlers
are doing well, so these are good signs (for the World Cup),” Misbah said.
Pakistan Cricket Board announced the 15-man squad for the mega event on 18 January, 2011 but did not name the captain of the team. Ironically, Pakistan is the only team in the world which has not announced its captain for the World Cup which gets underway
in less than three weeks.
The delay in announcement of the captain has raised many eyebrows in Pakistan’s cricketing ranks. There are also some rumours which suggest that there is some sort of ‘grouping’ within the team. However, both Shahid Afridi and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 have categorically
denied them.
Misbah said, “The team has gelled well. Whoever is the captain, everyone will play for the team and for the country.”
Misbah, who was earlier dropped from the national team after a run of poor performances in 2010, has had a wonderful tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754. The Test captain scored 231 runs in the two-match series at a breath-taking average of 115.50 runs per innings. He has
already scored 178 runs from three innings of the ODI series.
Such harmony in Pakistan team is seen after a long time and we can hope that this bunch of senior players can take http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 cricket in the right direction.
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