Shahid Afridi

[Yas]

Having watched yet another Afridiesque dismissal yesterday I felt the need to start this thread. I think we all know that Afridi is nowhere near a capable batsman (technique wise) but has forged a career out of his destructive batting yet even this is an ever decreasing phenomenon.

Afridi has improved no end as a spinner in ODI cricket during recent years and could justify a place in the team for this alone, yet this should not be the case. Afridi has been quoted as saying that he is a bowler now which is a complete cop out. From what I can gather he has finally realised that he is not good enough (again technique wise) to bat during crunch moments of the game and has shuffled himself away at the bottom of the order. This is the same Afridi that won the World T20 for Pakistan batting at number three with some great knocks! It just baffles me that it seems as if he has become scared to even come out and bat and watching him come out in yesterdays presentation and laugh about it was quite cringeworthy, how he can look the other batsmen in the team in the face is beyond me.

No one is expecting Afridi to mature as a batmsan (god forbid) but I think he needs to man up, stop hiding behind his bowling/captaincy and start believing in his (limited) ability with the bat again!!!

If he keeps batting like he has been I cannot see him being captaincy material.

Rant over

 

[Spark]

Don't really agree tbh. His bowling would walk him into any team going around atm.

 

[Yas]

Yes I agree with you maybe you have misunderstood me. He's a great bowler I agree but I jus think he think's that being a great bowler is enough!!

 

[Spark]

That's unfortunate but it shouldn't be about what he thinks, it should be about what the team needs. And ATM I would say Pakistan will happily wear his less than brilliant batting form for his more than brilliant bowling form.

Welcome to CW by the way.

 

[salman85]

Afridi is a bowler who can bat.I'll repeat,a BOWLER,who can BAT.He was a bowler to begin with when he came into the team in 1996,but his batting gathered interest because he was up there as one of the game's most genuine pinch hitters when the particular batting style became big during the late 1990s.Afridi the non-performing Batsman merits a place over Afridi the non-performing bowler.If he was bowling crap,then i would understand people calling for his head,but doing so on the basis of his batting is stupid.He's not hiding by coming down the order.If he was coming up the order then people would blame him for being selfish and not letting specialist batsmen play before him.He has become a very good bowler,and batting has taken a backseat.There are enough aggressive batsmen at the top of our order so there is no need for Afridi to push himself up.Anyway,Afridi is a BOWLER who can BAT.

And please,as far as captaincy is concerned,he is our most enigmatic captain in a long time and has all the ability to lead this team to greater heights.Pointing a finger at his captaincy is just silly.

Also,did i tell you that Afridi is a BOWLER who can BAT?

 

[Yas]

It's difficult to discuss Mr.Afridi as a cricketer as he is quite "special" for the want of another word, And again I agree with you as a Pakistan fan you can almost always rely on Afridi to pick up wickets and if not then keep the RR down. I just think now that he is captain he has deicded to run away from batting because he has lost confidence in it and that doesnt send a great message to the rest of the team. We all know not to expect great things from Afridi's bat but the way he has been going he wants us to expect nothing at all!!

It was interesting during the aftermath of the India semi final he said that he shouldve done a Dhoni ala WC final and put himself up the order and attack yet he didn't. Again im just baffled to the fact that this one time risk taker does not even want to throw the dice anymore!!

Thanks for the welcome

 

[Yas]

Afridi is a bowler who can bat.I'll repeat,a BOWLER,who can BAT.He was a bowler to begin with when he came into the team in 1996,but his batting gathered interest because he was up there as one of the game's most genuine pinch hitters when the particular batting style became big during the late 1990s.Afridi the non-performing Batsman merits a place over Afridi the non-performing bowler.If he was bowling crap,then i would understand people calling for his head,but doing so on the basis of his batting is stupid.He's not hiding by coming down the order.If he was coming up the order then people would blame him for being selfish and not letting specialist batsmen play before him.He has become a very good bowler,and batting has taken a backseat.There are enough aggressive batsmen at the top of our order so there is no need for Afridi to push himself up.Anyway,Afridi is a BOWLER who can BAT.

And please,as far as captaincy is concerned,he is our most enigmatic captain in a long time and has all the ability to lead this team to greater heights.Pointing a finger at his captaincy is just silly.

Also,did i tell you that Afridi is a BOWLER who can BAT?

Ok Salman I think you can calm down now! I am as hardcore Pakistani supporter as they come and always have time for Afridi but maybe I was not as clear in my post as I could have been. Let me make it clear I am NOT calling for Afridi's head because he cannot bat. I agree with you he is the best captain weve had for a long long time. My only gripe is the fact that yes while i agree that he is a "BOWLER who can BAT" in MY opinion he has totally lost that fighting spirit/attitude that he brought to the team with his batting which is a real shame. Im not expecting miracles like his 109 against SL or his double tons in the Asia Cup last year but even those 15 ball 30's are elluding him which would be great to compliment his bowling. Surely you would agree with me that even he is capable of that??

 

[salman85]

Yes he is capable of those 15 balls 30.But I was focusing on your first post where you said he wasn't captaincy material because of his batting.

His batting never had 'fighting' spirit.It was reckless.Fighting Spirit is something that you would associate with Misbah's batting, not Afridi's.The recklessness in his batting is still there,as it was 15 years ago.It's just hasn't paid off too off late.The same style of batting will get him a century,and the same will get him nothing.His style hasn't changed.He's just going through a barren pitch.Sooner or later he's going to play another utterly destructive knock,and then have another barren period.That's the pay it has always been.

For the record,this isn't even his worst ever batting form.His stats for 2006 were even more woeful,but he seems to be getting much more stick right now.It's probably got something to do with his great bowling form,where people subconsciously expect him to fire with the bat too.

 

[Yas]

Again I think I need to be more clearer, with regards to this "fighting spirit" I meant more personality wise rather than winning a match with his bat. He has always struck me as a confident person but it seems he has lost this. Also whilst being a bowler who can bat I seem to remember him telling Younis Khan during the World T20 in 2009 that he wanted to bat number 3 so he obviously had some confidence in his batting then but is now back to the mindset that any runs he gets is a bonus. I wont go back to the old argument that Afridi has soooooo much to offer as an all rounder because its all been said and its never going to happen it would just be nice if he could chip in with the bat now and then because although he is a serial slogger/reckless batsman he is more than capable of a few semi-decent knocks now and then!

Secondly with my captaincy statement all I meant was can you imagine if we had lostr that game Afridi WOULD have had a lot of the blame, I know that the top order did nothing but it was dragged back and just needed finishing off (which thankfully happened). I mean you can see it happening that in a crunch match where Pak need 10 0ff 20 with two wickets he goes an hits out. No matter what Afridi brings to the team if your captain does a thing like that (Which is highly likely with Afridi) surely he should not be captain!!!

 

[Blaze 18]

He has batted in this fashion since his debut - for fifteen years. He isn't going to change and the fans are going to have to accept it.

 

[salman85]

Anyone will lose confidence after being out of form.Afridi has a very poor WC with the bat,and he has followed that with the current series against WI.It is natural for him to lose confidence in his batting.The confidence will be back once he plays an innings of significance,which as we know with Afridi,can happen anywhere and anytime,albeit very rarely.

Needing 10 off 20 balls and him hitting out is the only way he bats.That's the only way he knows.Ideally,he should play responsibly,but that's not how he will play and we've seen enough over the years to know how seriously he takes his batting.The same shots that get him out are the same ones likely to get hit out of the park,and then everything changes from criticism to acclaim.

Someone gifted with as much power and timing as him should have had a much more fulfilling career had he been selective in his stroke-play,but that just isn't Afridi.Like Blaze said,it's about time people accept his style of play because he isn't going to change it after 15 years in the International Arena.

 

[smash84]

Afridi is a bowler who can bat.I'll repeat,a BOWLER,who can BAT.He was a bowler to begin with when he came into the team in 1996,but his batting gathered interest because he was up there as one of the game's most genuine pinch hitters when the particular batting style became big during the late 1990s.Afridi the non-performing Batsman merits a place over Afridi the non-performing bowler.If he was bowling crap,then i would understand people calling for his head,but doing so on the basis of his batting is stupid.He's not hiding by coming down the order.If he was coming up the order then people would blame him for being selfish and not letting specialist batsmen play before him.He has become a very good bowler,and batting has taken a backseat.There are enough aggressive batsmen at the top of our order so there is no need for Afridi to push himself up.Anyway,Afridi is a BOWLER who can BAT.

And please,as far as captaincy is concerned,he is our most enigmatic captain in a long time and has all the ability to lead this team to greater heights.Pointing a finger at his captaincy is just silly.

Also,did i tell you that Afridi is a BOWLER who can BAT?

haha.....gun post......

BTW welcome to CW Yas. ....CW is a really great forum and I hope you have a good time here

I think what I (and a lot of others as well) would like Afridi to do, ideally, is to do an Imran. Since Afridi seems to be taking the captaincy well maybe he can work on his batting as well. We all know Afridi is capable of playing good knocks. It has always been the application that is missing. Maybe the added responsibility of captaincy can induce this application into him something which happened with Imran as well. I think that is what his fans would like him to do.

But then again from somebody like Afridi it might be too much to ask.

 

[M0rphin3]

Don't really agree tbh. His bowling would walk him into any team going around atm.

He would find it hard to walk into the indian team imo

 

[Yas]

Thanks for the warm welcome

But yes I do agree with the overall opinion of the above posters it's either all or nothing with our glorious leader! The interesting thing, which is my point, is that whilst I support Afridi as a captain and think he is doing a fantastic job with the poisioned chalice of Pakistani captaincy I just think that it must be pretty embarrasing for an international captain to give instructions to his team then look them in the eye after he completley ignores them? I dont know maybe its just horses for courses but just my view! Anyway he'll probably go in an open the innings on monday leading his team to victory with a well paced hundred nw...lol

 

[smash84]

Anyway he'll probably go in an open the innings on monday leading his team to victory with a well paced hundred nw...lol

Fat chance

 

[Blaze 18]

I understand that it isn't really very unreasonable to expect Shahid Afridi to be able to temper his game according to the situation - even tail-enders like Ishant Sharma and Saeed Ajmal do their best to hang around when the need arises, so a player as profusely talented as Shahid Afridi shouldn't really have too much trouble hanging around when the team needs him. Of course, that is in theory. In reality, he just does not have the temperament to do that, and he has this inexplicable desire to slog every second ball out of the park. Like I stated above, after three hundred odd ODIs and fifteen years, fans must be used to this by now; those who aren't better get used to it, because chances are he isn't going to change one little bit.

All that said, if you are looking for significant contributions from your number seven and number eight batsmen when you're chasing 177 (or whatever it was) against an ordinary West Indies side, you're in big trouble.

 

[Yas]

See I don't buy all of this 15 years blah blah blah get used to it malarky! Ive been supporting Pak for god knows how long so let me assure you I am as used to it as you can get but in reality this is international cricket, fair enough when Afridi wasn't captain whatever entertainment he brought to the crease with his batting you could have had a giggle and remarked "What we gna do with you Afridi" with a smirk but he is captain now he surely has to set SOME iota of thought in his batting which he IS capable of!

 

[Xuhaib]

in terms of talent Afridi imo is as good as Symonds. Has all the strokes technically pretty efficent much better then your average power hitters which we get now a days has a slight weakness to a short pitch ball but looks pretty ok against any other bowling, however he has one of the worst game sense while batting and a temperament that is highly questionable..Anybody who is above the age of 12 should stop expecting miracles from Afridi's bat mentally he is never there while batting.

 

[Yas]

Im not expecting miracles at all! Unless you think that Afridi getting a few 30's and 40's here and there is the stuff of miracles (maybe it is) in short all im trying to say is:

* Afridi's batting has gone from bad to uber bad
* As a captain you have some form of responsibility, you cant go laughing it off like he did yesterday! I bet he wouldnt be laughing if it was against India in a WC Semi Final Oh wait.........

Anyways long live Afridi!

 

[Blaze 18]

Well, to expect Shahid Afridi to bat sensibly is kinda expecting a miracle.