Re: Afridi removed as ODI captain as Misbah will lead in Ireland (All threads merged)
jaan kee aman paon to kuch araz karron jahan panah…
shoaib malik is actually not a bad choice…I was thinking abt it…if he has been cleared from the match fixing investigations he may be brought back into the ODI team….mohammad shahid khan afridi has been a terrible linkage between the lower order and the middle order batting for a while and my stand has been that it is not a temporary problem (bad form) but more of a permanent disorder (bad reflexes due to age)…players like afridi have absolutely no technique and they thrive on strong reflexes and exceptional hand eye coordination….at age of 36, afridi is always late in his shots ( especially on the backfoot which has served him so well in his career)….so if we want afridi in the team, he will only play as a bowler and that would be an extreme underutilization of a spot.…
anyway, malik is only 29 (if we trust his age), superfit, shrewd, exceptional fielder, highly experienced, handy bowler, and a useful middle order batsman. he has a a sharp tactical cricket mind and a composed personality under pressure… He is also in a good form and given the talent scarcity that we have, it does not make any sense to keep him out of the ODI team… I also think that marriage with sania should have brought more sense to him and he will not get into petty politics as before…he has not played much international cricket after getting married and I am sure he will be dying to make a point to his star wife that he is also an active international player…
My suggestion : to start, afridi should not have been fired by PCB in such an insulting way…despite his shortcomings, afridi was doing just fine and he could have continued…the way he has been let go will create more division in the team…but if afridi is not coming back, then make hafeez ODI skipper, bring malik back as a player to replace afridi and see how things progress.