 Pakistan's Test match captain for the tour of UK, that included the Test matches against Australia and England, Shahid Afridi, has decided to call it quits
from Test match cricket. He had led his side in only one Test match against Australia,
but has decided not to play any further part in the series and retired from the
game.
Afridi had already retired from Test match cricket on two separate occasions,
and this was his third stint in the Test team. He had been forced into the side
by the PCB chairman, Ejaz Butt, as an apparent prerequisite to take over
as the captain of the side in the other formats of the games as well. However,
the reluctant Test match player has taken only one Test match to decide that
this was not going to be his cup of tea.
Afridi's captaincy was alright in the only test match at Lord's where he made
the suitable changes. However, the problem that may have haunted him was that
he is neither a good batsman nor an excellent bowler in this format of the game.
This would put extra and unnecessary pressure on the captain in leading from
the front, something that he can do in the shorter formats of the game.
Afridi said that the basic problem was that he did not possess any great temperament
to play in the five-day format of the game. His issue was also with the technique
that was required to be a part, but without that in place, Afridi's batting
would have been found out as well. With an injury to go with the above, Afridi
said that retirement was the only option.
Afridi will be replaced by Salman Butt as the captain of the side. Butt
is a Pakistani opener, who has had his problems as a batsman in this format.
He has made seven comebacks to the side, after being dropped as many times from
the side, but he was the vice-captain of the side in this series. This means
that he automatically gets a promotion up to captaining the side.
Not everyone is happy with the decision to allow Butt to lead the side, given
that there is a thought process that says that Butt's batting needs to be his
prime area of focus than the burden of captaincy that he has been saddled with.
Pakistan plays Australia in the second Test from Wednesday.
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