Afridi Bids Farewell to Test Cricket, Again!
Pakistani cricket has come all the back to square one. Their Test match captain, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482, who had made a comeback to Test match cricket after giving it a miss for three years and was handed over the captaincy, has decided to retire from the five-day format at the end of the current series against Australia.
The decision may not have come as a shock to those who understand how Pakistani cricket works. When Afridi took over the captaincy of the Test match team, along with the leadership of the two other formats, he was expected to be the messiah who saved Pakistan's cricketing pride. While he had a decent start to the role in the T20Is, he lost both the games in the Asia Cup to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758, before embarking upon this tour.
What needs to be understood is that Afridi has been too fond of the Test match format of the game, a format in which he has not been very successful. He has regularly struggled to bat in this format, and while his bowling has been good in the shorter formats, in the Test matches, it is, at best, average. Add that to the fact that he is naturally an aggressive batsman with not too much technique, the opposition understands well on how to bowl to him. This means that Afridi is barely able to lead from the front in this format.
Even in the first Test match of the series at Lord’s, that has turned out to be Afridi’s ‘Waterloo’, Afridi’s dismissals in both the innings smack of someone without technique or responsibility- or both.
Afridi explained his decision that he did not have the temperament to play in the five-day format of the game. He also added that it would be a better option for a younger Pakistani cricketer to lead the side, who would be able to relish the job more than him. He also cited the side injury as one of the reasons for the failure to get the best out of himself in the series.
Afridi said that he was never too fond of taking over the role of captain of the Pakistani Test team but was coaxed into doing so by the Pakistan Cricket Board. Afridi said that the board asked him to try and give it a shot, which he had done, but found it difficult to enjoy and hence the decision. Afridi also said that his attacking mindset had meant that he was not able to adjust to the five-day format of the game too well. He was candid enough to say that he was not mentally tough to continue with the role and hence the decision to call it quits from this format.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755’s cricket manager, Yawar Saeed, though, had a different take and said that he couldn’t term the same as retirement given that it was Afridi’s injury that had caused him to pull out of the game. The manager also added that the new captain will be unveiled after the board was apprised of the situation and the same would be announced.
Pakistan’s problem is that they play their second Test against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 at Headingley in four days, and if Afridi does not recover from his injury, he could miss out on the game. In that case, the Pakistani management may need to fast-track the search for their next captain, who will be taking over the role from as early as the second Test match of the series.
Australia had won the first Test match against Pakistan at Lord’s rather easily by a margin of 150 runs thanks to a six-wicket haul by Marcus North.
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