Shahid Afridi needs to show self control: Moin Khan
Pakistan skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 has been coming down hard on his players in post match ceremonies for giving unimpressive performances in the ongoing Twenty20 series in New Zealand.
Afridi’s behaviour has caused former http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-c71319 to advise the current skipper that he needs to mellow down his aggression towards his own teammates in front of the crowd.
Moin said, “A captain should refrain from criticising his players in public because it can affect team spirit. Afridi is a very experienced player and should be aware of it."
Moin was of the view that the skipper needed to criticize the players privately in the dressing room and not openly in front of cameras.
After the defeat in the first Twenty20 in New Zealand against the home side, Afridi criticised his batsmen for underperforming and being the main cause behind the team’s defeat. The flamboyant hitter did the same after Pakistan
were defeated in the second match, which ultimately caused the visitors to lost the T20 series to the hosts.
After losing the series, Afridi snapped and bulldozed his bowlers for the loss, while talking to the media after the match. He said, “We were let down today by our bowlers, I was expecting a much better performance from them but
they were unable to bowl well in the match."
Pakistan has been marred with off-field scandals since summer this year and with the World Cup just a month away, another defeat in a T20 series was the last thing the country needed. Pakistan had a terrible start in the tour when
they were defeated in a warm-up match against Auckland and then in the first Twenty20 where the Pakistani batsmen totally failed in coming to terms with the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Auckland-c766 pitch. Four middle order batsmen couldn’t even reach double figures and the team managed to
score just 143 runs, which wasn’t enough to hold back the Kiwis from chasing successfully.
The second match in Hamilton was extremely important for the visitors as they needed to win in order to keep the series alive, but that didn’t happen as well and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 won the match by 39 runs after posting a total of 185
while batting first.
Afridi was furious at his bowlers for giving away too many runs because both Umar Gul and Shoaib Akhtar were hit all around the park by the batting side. Akhtar gave away 42 runs in his 4 overs, while Gul gave 47 runs off his 3
highly expensive overs. Such a performance from the ace bowlers was simply not good enough for the skipper.
Afridi himself failed in the two matches and his decision to open the innings clearly backfired. Pakistan’s former opening batsman Rameez Raja also criticised the skipper’s decision to open and felt that Afridi had been performing
better by coming down the order and his experience would benefit the team only in the lower middle order.
At least Afridi paid heed to Raja’s advice, for deciding to let Ahmed Shehzad open with Mohammad Hafeez in the 3rd T20I led to a stunning half-century (54 off 34 balls) from the former, as Pakistan were able to score
an imposing 183 total, beating New Zealand by 103 runs due to the bowling efforts of Afridi and all-round performance of man-of-the-match Abdul Razzaq.
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