KARACHI, April 23 (APP) - Pakistan Captain Shahid Afridi was looking for support and prayers of the nation and backing of media in their endeavor to retain their World T20 title in West Indies. “Me and my team is geared-up to tactically and technically live up to the expectations of the nations to accomplish the task in the West Indies,” he told APP Correspondent Ehsan Qureshi in an interview here Friday, prior to his departure to Lahore on his to St.Lucia on Saturday morning.
“Without the prayers of the nation and supporters across the world, Pakistan team can not achieve anything. Besides playing patriotically for Pakistan we needed support of countrymen and media,” he added. “My appeal to the national media would be healthy in criticism but should keep the interest of Pakistan above all,” he said. “My mission as a captain and with the support of players and team management to to keep the team away from any controversy,” he pointed out.
He made its clear that he was not under any kind of pressure. “I like to lead the team from the front because its my style and I always believe in an aggressive approach which had his stigma throughout his career,” he commented “We are fully equipped to face the challenges in West Indies. He got well balanced team in batting and bowling and we have to further lift the standard of fielding, Afridi, who played key role in Pakistan semifinal and finals triumph in 2009.
“Fielding is crucial area in this fastest version of the game and a lot of hard work was done to raise the standard. We are ready give our best and rest with Almighty,” he stressed.
He dispelled the impression that Pakistan may face trouble in batting department. “Its altogether different in T20 cricket. We got a lot of firepower in our batting,” he said. He said they are initially planning to start the innings with Muhammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal. We have experienced Misbahul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, young Umer Akmal, Khalid Latif, Salman Butt.
“As we expect spinning track and for this we got good options in Saeed Ajmal, Muhammad Hafeez and he himself,” he maintained. “We got Muhammad Aamir, Muhammad Sami, Muhammad Asif and Abdul Razaq,” Shahid Afridi indicated.
“T20 is very tough and demanding cricket and we can afford to take any team lightly. We even can not take Bangladesh lightly as they possess a number talented cricketer in their line-up,” he remarked.
In the meantime, a number of Shahid Afridi and Pakistan supporters including former Test opener and Captain Saeed Anwar, former PCB Chairman Lt. General (Retd) Tauqir Zia, Sindh Sports Minister Dr.Muhammad Ali Shah, former Chief Selector Salahauddin, Ex City Nazim Syed Mustufa Kamal and others visited his house on Thursday and wished him and Pakistan team a great luck in the World T20 in Caribbean.
“Without the prayers of the nation and supporters across the world, Pakistan team can not achieve anything. Besides playing patriotically for Pakistan we needed support of countrymen and media,” he added. “My appeal to the national media would be healthy in criticism but should keep the interest of Pakistan above all,” he said. “My mission as a captain and with the support of players and team management to to keep the team away from any controversy,” he pointed out.
He made its clear that he was not under any kind of pressure. “I like to lead the team from the front because its my style and I always believe in an aggressive approach which had his stigma throughout his career,” he commented “We are fully equipped to face the challenges in West Indies. He got well balanced team in batting and bowling and we have to further lift the standard of fielding, Afridi, who played key role in Pakistan semifinal and finals triumph in 2009.
“Fielding is crucial area in this fastest version of the game and a lot of hard work was done to raise the standard. We are ready give our best and rest with Almighty,” he stressed.
He dispelled the impression that Pakistan may face trouble in batting department. “Its altogether different in T20 cricket. We got a lot of firepower in our batting,” he said. He said they are initially planning to start the innings with Muhammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal. We have experienced Misbahul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, young Umer Akmal, Khalid Latif, Salman Butt.
“As we expect spinning track and for this we got good options in Saeed Ajmal, Muhammad Hafeez and he himself,” he maintained. “We got Muhammad Aamir, Muhammad Sami, Muhammad Asif and Abdul Razaq,” Shahid Afridi indicated.
“T20 is very tough and demanding cricket and we can afford to take any team lightly. We even can not take Bangladesh lightly as they possess a number talented cricketer in their line-up,” he remarked.
In the meantime, a number of Shahid Afridi and Pakistan supporters including former Test opener and Captain Saeed Anwar, former PCB Chairman Lt. General (Retd) Tauqir Zia, Sindh Sports Minister Dr.Muhammad Ali Shah, former Chief Selector Salahauddin, Ex City Nazim Syed Mustufa Kamal and others visited his house on Thursday and wished him and Pakistan team a great luck in the World T20 in Caribbean.
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