Pakistan leave for WI with title defence task

LAHORE: The defending champions of World Twenty-Twenty, Pakistan left for West Indies to defend their title in just over 10 months time from Lahore International Airport.

Talking with reporters at the airport, Twenty20 skipper, Shahid Khan Afridi said that he has a mission in hand to defend the title in West Indies and he has a team that has the potential to repeat the heroics of the last year.

Afridi said that apart from the title defence, he has another big task as captain. “With the support of my players and team management, I would try to keep Pakistani players away from all the controversies”, Afridi added.

Pakistani team left the Lahore Airport with two of the players not travelling with the squad. Fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Sami will leave for the Caribbean separately owing to personal problems. Mohammad Asif is planned to leave for London as he is banned to enter UAE for lifetime, from where, he would reach West Indies to join his team, while Mohammad Sami doesn’t have British visa therefore he would first go New York then he would join his team mates in the Caribbean.

Just before flying to the West Indies, Pakistan also survived an injury scare. Kamran Akmal narrowly escaped fears of being dropped Friday when he was able to clear a fitness test.

Afridi said that fielding is the one area that we will give the utmost attention during the World Twenty-Twenty.

“I have a well balanced team in batting and bowling, and we have to further lift the standard of fielding. Fielding is crucial in this fastest version of the game and a lot of hard work was done to raise the standard”, Afridi told reporters at the airport.

While talking about chances of Pakistan in the ICC tournament, the Boom Boom Afridi said that a circle of experts is saying that Pakistani team is somewhat weak in the batting department, but I think we have got good bunch of batters who can play as per the situation. Moreover, our spinners are world class, and with the West Indian pitches favouring spinners more in the recent past, our spinners would give us the real edge over out opponents. “Our batting firepower includes Misbah-ul-Haq (a genuine Twenty Twenty player), Abdul Razzaq (a classy allrounder), young Umar Akmal (hard-hitting fellow), Khalid Latif (devastating opener) and Salman Butt (experienced bullock). We have got great spinners in shape of mysterious Saeed Ajmal, gutsy Mohammad Hafeez and myself. Our pace department is also stronger than the rest as it has fast bowlers like Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sami and Mohammad Aamer with Abdul Razzaq as a helping hand. So all in all, we have great chance of making it two in a row.

Pakistan would play their first game in the tournament against Bangladesh on May 2 at St Lucia. Australia are the other side in the Group A of the ICC World Twenty-Twenty Championship.