You read it right. Shahid Afridi the captain, thats what the current Pakistani team, which lacks aggression and planning, needs. I watched the Pentagular cup final on Geo Super and I didn’t miss a minute of it to witness and compare the captaincy between Misbah-Ul-Haq and Afridi. Its needless to say what the conclusion was.
First off, we have already seen what Shoaib Malik is like as a captain. I had heard a lot of Misbah’s captaincy in the domestic circuit, and Ramiz Raja also said once that Misbah is known as “Einstien” in domestic cricket due to his brilliant captaincy. I must say, Intially I was very impressed with his captaincy as well and overall he is a much better option than Malik. Misbah set good aggressive fields and you could see him going up to the bowlers a lot and telling them what to do. He did seem to have plans against batsmen, especially when Afridi came onto bat, Misbah brought on Hafeez right away knowing Afridi likes to take on spinners and Hafeez was the perfect choice because Hafeez bowles flat and wicket to wicket and is very hard to hit out of the ground. That is the reason why he is a very useful bowler in ODI’s. Afridi, being his typical self in batting went after Hafeez and got caught out. But, the match was already in very strong position for Sindh by that time and Sindh needed some big hitting and had to get to a big total and declare. But as Sindh batsmen dominated, it looked as if Misbah just gave up. He was just going through the motions by the end of the innings and looked very un-interested in the proceedings.
Now to Afridi’s captaincy. Right from the word go, you could tell Afridi is here to win this match and tournament. His decision to bowl first against an extremely strong Punjab batting line-up proved his intentions. He wasn’t afraid to face the Punjab batsmen. He set aggressive fields, yet gave his bowlers the neccessary protection. He used Sohail Khan brilliantly and wrapped up the Punjab first innings quickly. Sindh batsmen were aggressive and were out there with a mission. He promoted Rizman Ahmed up the order, that gamble also paid off for Afridi as well. At 417/7 and Sarfraz at 82 and Anwar Ali 33 and doing so well, Afridi decided to declare. I can bet any other Pakistani captain would have let Sarfraz complete his 100 and Anwar his 50. But Afridi knew pitch has eased out and Sindh bowlers need more time to bowl out the strong Punjab batting line up. His decision proved right and he bowled out Punjab on the same day. When the Sindh fast bowlers didn’t get the initial breakthrough like the first innings, Afridi decided to come on to bowl himself from the 12th over. His decision proved a master stroke as he dismissed the dangerous Jamshed, and Hafeez, who looked set to play a long innings, in quick seccession.
Also, in the previous game against Federal Areas, Afridi made a very bold declaration, setting Federal Areas 314 with about 80 overs of play to go. Federal Areas went onto win the match by 1 wicket but there was a big lapse in the Sindh fielding as they dropped about 5 catched just in that innings, otherwise match was in Sindh’s bag. Not only that, when Afridi declared, Sindh had a score of 300+ and were only 4 down and could have comfortably batted all day long. But, Afridi’s declaration once again proved the point that Afridi goes out there to try and win, not just draw the match and get some batting practise.
This is the first time I have monitered Afridi’s captaincy so closely. I had heard from a few friends that Afridi is a brilliant captain and very aggressive, thus, I decided to watch closely and see what the hype is about. I must say, Afridi looks to me the solution of the current Pakistani team. Our team does not lack talent, but lacks motivation and aggression under the leadership of Malik and in the past Inzi. Our players have become used to the laid back attitude of these 2 players, which is a very dangerous sign. Look at all the successful teams all over the world and you will see how aggressive they all are. Look at the Aussies, the South African’s and most recently, the Indian team under Dhoni. The Indian team I have been most impressed with recently, as you can see the transformation of leadership from Dravid to Dhoni. Look at the players, how aggressive they are, and this is the aggression and motivation which brought them to victory against the mighty Aussie team.
Even though I know Afridi is highly unlikely to ever captain the Pakistani team, but I opened this thread to just appriciate this unique talent. People will argue how can he be captain when he is so irresponisble while batting and so on. He is a bowlig all-rounder, and on current form, I’d pick Afridi over Kaneria anyday for test and ODI’s. Another thing, Afridi did not pick Kaneria in the playing 11 against Punjab. That shows you how much confidence he had in his own bowling abilities and Rizwan Ahmed. His decision once again paid dividends. I don’t care what Afridi does while batting, I just want to see Pakistan being led by a captain who is filled with aggression and is motivated fully to take Pakistan to victory. To be honest, I’m sick and tired of watching the Inzi’s or Malik’s captaining Pakistan, its time for a revolution…we can’t do any worse than what we are doing right now. Its worth taking the risk in my opinion. Only if PCB would also think along the same lines.