Inzamam-ul-haq feels Shahid Afridi deserved a farewell match
Former Pakistani captain Inzamam-ul-Haq feels that all-rounder Shahid Afridi deserved a farewell after the later called it a day from all forms of the game a few days ago. Arguably one of the most popular cricketers ever to don the Pakistan jersey, Afridi has produced many memorable performances for the Asian giants in the limited-over formats.
Known for his hard-hitting, he has scored over 8000 runs but his average is poor at 23.57. During the latter part of his career, he contributed tremendously with the ball as well, taking 395 wickets in total.
Also read: Shahid Afridi believes he has done enough to deserve a grand farewell
As per the reports of the Business Standard, Inzy said, "In my opinion, Shahid deserves to be given a farewell match so that he can announce his retirement properly and retire in a befitting manner." A holder of two of the fastest centuries in Cricket history, ‘Boom Boom’ earlier said in an interview that he had done enough to deserve a “grand farewell.”
Recently, the Pakistan ODI team has been under the scanner for their poor performance in England, and may miss a direct berth in the 2019 Cricket World Cup. They are one of the lowest ranked ODI team and a lot needs to mend their ways to revive the lost glory of Pakistan Cricket.
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The former captain, who played 120 Tests, feels that a lot of hard work needs to be done to improve the rankings in the limited versions of the game. "This selection committee has just worked for three months and we have identified lot of improvements that need to be made to our cricket system and structure.”
“But all this will take time and commitment for us to move forward and there will be highs and lows in this path,” said Inzy.
Pakistan is the top-ranked Test team in the world right now and should not take the West Indies series lightly if they are to retain the No.1 spot as India can easily replace them at the helm. The Indians areas they are slated to play 13 Tests in their home season.
Regarding the matter, he said, "There is no question of taking the West Indies team lightly as they have always posed a challenge for us and I foresee a close series although we have a clear edge in the Test match format and we are the number one team."