Afridi will make me eat my words..
...which I will gladly do in due time, but only after this series against South Africa is complete! Till then, I will stand by my position.
As my readers know I have continued my one-man campaign against Shahid Afridi for a quite a while now. Here, and here, here...and umm..also here. In fact, just look at my Afridi label.
So several people have already emailed or text-messaged me regarding my views on Afridi and they politely requested me to comment on this latest innings of his against South Africa.
Naturally, midway through this innings, one has to be very impressed. He made 77 runs of 35 balls with 5 four's and 6 sixes.
Brilliant innings obviously, but it was Afridi style innings. If he's around for 30 balls, he wrecks havoc. But does he stick around for more than 5 balls consistently? Naturally one can not expect this from him every single time, nor do I really expect him to. I am not saying he should score 20 runs every time, which I would be happy with. My reasons for his exclusion in the past have always been his lack of performance.
So lets see how this series pans out. I want Afridi to do well. But most of all, I want Pakistan to do well. I am still not convinced both can go hand in hand.
4 comments:
BOOM BOOM Afridi is generally BOOM BOOM once in a blue moon.
Just feel that yesterday he was damn lucky to get away with those cheeky paddle sweep and one to many close calls with the pop-up hook shot which luckily landed in no-mans-territory. Otherwise we could have been singing a different tune altogether.
I now keep him in the side ONLY because of the energy he brings into the field with his attacking bowling - He should be considered generally as a bowler who can bat. If he bats great but if he doesn't too bad. AS far as the batting line-up goes he should be shuffled around to appear 'when needed' not coming in on a scheduled slot. he simply cant stomach the situation, and bat accordingly - so technically hes not a reliable bat.
I agree with you hold up the garlands until we see him perform this entire series otherwise its back to the good ol afridi bashing days
"I want Afridi to do well. But most of all, I want Pakistan to do well. I am still not convinced both can go hand in hand."
Sorry to be a pedant, but isn't this a contradiction. Surely, when Afridi does well, Pakistan prospers quite happily. It's when he fails there are problems for the Pakistan team as a whole.
Or do we mean Afridi does well just by being in the side - regardless of his performance?
Teeth- Clever..! :)
I am okay with your assesment. He should be considered a bowler who can bat. THat's something I can live with. What I don't like is, how he wants to play 3 down or they want him to open and all that...that's rubbish
Atheist - THanks for the comments. Let me clarify.
Naturally when Afridi plays well, on those days, Pakistan always does well. However, on the whole, Paksitan would be much better served with someone else in that position. Afridi does well only once in 20 games...
No - we can do very well with Afridi not in the side. We have won matches without him and we have lost matches without him. He's a player who has his off and on days. Even Inzi gets out on 0 once in while, but Inzi also averages 40. Afridi scores 50 runs in 1 innings and then 50 runs combined in the next 19.
Like I wrote to Teeth above. I am okay with Afridi playing as a bowling allrounder. But our over dependence on allrounder means that something is being compromised. And that is our lack of penetration when it comes to bowling and the inability to make the big 100's in a specialist position.
This allrounder strategy ONLY works when MoYo, YK, and INZI make 150-200 runs between them. The rest of these allrounders then chip in with 25 each in 10 balls.
However when our middle order fails, our allrounders are useless as well...
If you read my past posits, I have talked about how we should perhaps quit pumping our side up with allrounders and focus on some specialists...
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