Team management advises Afridi to 'take rest': sources
Pakistan will play their last match against Sri Lanka at 6:30pm today.
LAHORE (Web Desk) – Two days after humiliating defeat by Bangladesh in Asia Cup, the team management has advised Pakistan’s T20 skipper Shahid Afridi to take rest, sources told Dunya News reported.
The green shirts will play their last match against Sri Lanka at 6:30am today (Friday) at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium, although neither team can now reach the final. The other finalists India and Bangladesh will clash on Sunday.
Imad Waseem, Wahab Riaz and Muhammad Nawaz are likely to be included in the squad against Sri Lanka.
According to sources, the team management has asked Afridi to take rest. The advice was given in a bid to restore the skipper’s confidence, however, it is up to Afridi either he will play today’s match or not.
On Wednesday, Bangladesh’s lower-order batsmen kept their cool under pressure to beat Pakistan by five wickets in Dhaka, securing them a place in the Asia Cup final.
After the match, Afridi rued his side’s poor batting.
"We made too many mistakes. It wasn’t a good total, but the bowlers did superbly," Afridi said.
Pakistan recovered from a slow start to put on a decent score, thanks to an unbeaten half-century from wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz Ahmed. But Bangladesh’s pace bowlers managed to keep Pakistan to 28-4 before Ahmed and Shoaib Malik shared 70 runs for the fifth wicket.
Ahmed hit 58 off 42 balls, with five fours and two sixes, while Malik added 41 off 31 balls as Pakistan scored 95 runs in the last 10 overs.
Malik, fresh from a match-winning unbeaten 63 against the UAE, hit five fours and a six.
Al-Amin Hossain grabbed 3-25 runs, while Arafat Sunny claimed 2-35 playing his first match in the tournament.
Taskin Ahmed conceded just two runs in his first three overs, before finishing with 1-14.
The match swung decisively to Bangladesh s favour when Mashrafe and Mahmudullah scored 15 runs in Mohammad Sami’s next over, which included two no balls.
QUESTIONS ON AFRIDI’S PERFORMANCE
During his career, the star cricketer has played 93 Twenty20 matches in which he has scored 1,315 runs with an average of 17.77 and grabbed 93 wickets.
Afridi headed Pakistan in 38 matches, out of which, 20 were lost and one remained tie.
Earlir on Thursday, on a luncheon arranged by Pakistani High Commissioner Shuja Pasha in honour of the national team. Shahid Afridi welcomed criticism after bad performance in Asia Cup and said that he looks forward to success in World T20.
He admitted his fault and said that such miserable performance of the team deserves criticism.
Last year Afridi announced his intention to retire from international cricket after the World T20, but in a recent interview with a leading cricket website he said he is facing a "lot of pressure" to change his mind.
