After Shahid Afridi’s amazing whirlwind beauty of an innings against New Zealand today, I am feeling more upbeat on Shahid Afridi than ever. Rumour has it that others are too and he may be finally named as Pakistan’s team captain for the 2011 ICC World Cup Cricket.
With 22 days left to the tournament, every other team except Pakistan has announced their captain. Not a distinction that one would want. So, the sooner we name a captain, the better. More than anyone else, the team needs to know so that they can wrap their mind around the idea of whoever it is.
The two leading contenders are Misbah-ul-Haq (who leads the Pakistan Test team) and Shahid Afridi (who is leading the Pakistan one-day team). I am rooting for Shahid Afridi despite some real bad behavior from him in the past. Not just because he is the more exciting player, but also because he is more experienced, because he is temperamentally more attuned to the one-day format, but most importantly because he leads aggressively, plays to win, and put all he has in trying to win.
Till a few hours ago I was rather agnostic between the two and could have voted for either of them (Misbah did have a good Test series as captain). But right now I see Shahid Afridi’s innings and attitude today and compare it with Misbah’s batting and strategy in the second Test match against New Zealand (which he let slide), and comparing the two I know exactly who I will go with – Shahid Afridi.
Who would you go with?
More comments from ATP Facebook Page:
– “it does not matters who will lead pakistan team bcz they r going to loos every match”
– “butha cha na hu bat tu band aachi ker ley”
– “both”
– “It should be like who will led Pakistan to loose? anyway Afridi should be the ultimate choice, changing a year old captain just before WC would be a biggest joke, chances for Pakistan in this WC are none”
– “it superb choice,,,,Afridi is the best”
– “Afridi!”
– “1st WC ma Imran “Khan”….2nd WC ma Younus “Khan” ne jeet di…..or ab Shahid “Khan” Afridi de ga Inshallah.”
– “Afridi is doing a good job…he should be our captain for the WC”
– “Afridi is the best captain for WC.”
– “Boom boom for captain…”
– “We should trust on afridi”
I think we need Misbah, precisely because we need someone who is mature and not rash and is there long term.
afridi is our captan done……….
we want to seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee afridi as captan
Misbah is too defensive, Afridi is too agressive… we need somebody in between, I propose we appoint Ted Williams as the captain.
Not the ‘best’ choice – he’s the ‘only’ choice we have.