Imran Khan wants Shahid Afridi to lead the side in Test- cricket update

Pakistan’s World Cup winning captain Imran Khan wants one day skipper Shahid Afridi to lead Pakistan in Test Cricket as well.

Afridi retired from Test cricket in 2010. Misbah-ul-Haq has led the Test side in the last two two tours.

Imran Khan wants Afridi to captain in all three formats of the game because he feels this will improve Afridi as a player and a captain.

Imran pointed to India’s strategy which allowed Mahendra Singh Dhoni to lead in one-day, Tests and Twenty20. He believed that this strategy has helped India accomplish a lot.

The cricketer turned politician asserts that Dhoni grew as a leader because he captains the side in all three formats. He wants Afridi to do the same. The former cricketer is of the view that in Test cricket a captain has more
room to experiment and thus can learn more as compared with limited over cricket.

Imran said, “There should be just one captain for all three formats. The main reason for India winning the World Cup is that their captain leads them in tests, ODIs and T20 cricket. My belief is that unless you captain in test
cricket you can’t really be at the top of your game.”

Afridi united the limited overs side and saw Pakistan to the semi-final of ICC 2011 World Cup, which Green Shirts lost to India, who went on to lift the trophy.

The 31-year-old all-rounder has been under fire for his comments that he recently made against the Indian media. He criticised them for their negative approach and said that they are narrow minded as compared to Pakistani’s.

However, later the all-rounder clarified that his comments were used out of context and he did not meant what the media projected it to be.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah believes such statements will not affect the cricket diplomacy between the two countries. He thinks Indians are now much mature and will neglect such statements.

Omar said, “We are too mature a country to react to an individual’s statement. I don’t believe that Shahid Afridi’s statement will have any impact on the process of dialogue between India and Pakistan.”

Pakistan team are due to tour West Indies later this month. The series will start from 18 April and will end on 24 May. The Men in Green have made a couple of changes in their squad. Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan and Abdul Razzaq have
been dropped from the one day and Twenty20 side.