Shahid Afridi fears for team's World Cup chances

Pakistan have lost five straight ODIs


Afp October 13, 2014

ABU DHABI: Stand-in captain Shahid Afridi believes national team's abysmal performance in their 3-0 rout by Australia will hurt the team's chances at next year's World Cup.

Pakistan spurned a good chance of salvaging some pride in the third and final one-dayer on Sunday, losing by one run in the final over in Abu Dhabi.

Needing just two to win in the 50th and final over, Pakistan lost Sohail Tanvir (ten) off spinner Glenn Maxwell's second ball and then Mohammad Irfan (nought) off the last.

Afridi said Pakistan cannot go into the World Cup in February and March in Australia and New Zealand with such performances.

"If we are not able to win on these pitches then we have to think we can't go into the World Cup with these performances," said Afridi.

Pakistan have now lost five straight one-dayers after losing the last two in a 2-1 defeat in Sri Lanka in August.

Afridi said the batsmen once again spoilt the good work of the bowlers who kept Australia down to 231-9 in 50 overs on Sunday.

"If you look overall we have spoilt the good work of the bowlers," said Afridi of the attack which saw paceman Sohail Tanvir taking 3-40 and himself finishing with 2-44.

"On this pitch it looked as if they will get 280-plus. We managed to keep them down to 231 but from the Twenty20 game to the third one-dayer our problem has been a lack of partnerships. When we build a partnership our wickets start to fall," said Afridi, who is Pakistan's Twenty20 captain.

Pakistan lost the only Twenty20 which preceded the one-day series by five wickets in Dubai.

On Sunday, Pakistan were without regular one-day captain Misbah-ul-Haq who opted to rest because of a poor run of scores.

"The Pakistan captaincy is not an easy job," said Afridi when asked why Misbah stepped aside. "It was Misbah's own decision to rest."

When asked would he like to continue the one-day captaincy until the World Cup, Afridi said: "I think whoever is captain - Misbah or me - we should know about it. If I am to captain in the World Cup then I should know about it."

Pakistan Cricket Board chairperson Shaharyar Khan said it will be up to Misbah to decide whether or not he wants to lead Pakistan in the World Cup, but that the board has already started considering other options.

The PCB earlier this year appointed Misbah one-day captain until 2015 World Cup.

COMMENTS (24)

faruq | 9 years ago | Reply

@Shamshad Nabi: u r a stupid guy.pls try to respect senior players.

Pervez | 9 years ago | Reply

Misbah is a good wise captain but terribly out of form. Afridi is a good captain and an excellent bowler. He lost his batting prowess long ago, so his batting should not be considered as a demerit or a must for survival in the team. Even then a few 4s and 6s by Afridi now and then and we may end up winning a T20 or one day match. Besides he still has star or hercules type of appeal in the public eye so lets not forget the importance of such things also. Moreover, some of the so called "youngsters and new-comers" are neither young nor new and no serious cricket lover would like to base a team around them. So a handful of 5 at the maximum could be taken for the world cup team and no more since some of them are not dependable at all. The Akmal brothers, whatever their follies, should always be kept in view, specially Umar. So in my opinion the test match captain should be Misbah for the time being and Afridi for the shorter one day form of the game plus T20 for the world cup team. Lets find their proper replacements in 2015!

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