LAHORE - Dropped all-rounder Shahid Afridi might be reconsidered for Pakistan's one-day international series against India if he performed well in the two Twenty20s against India, said Pakistan one-day captain Misbahul Haq on Wednesday.
Earlier, the selectors picked Afridi for the two Twenty20s series against India, but left out of the three one-dayers because of his poor form in domestic cricket and at international matches as well. He had scored only 182 runs in his last 16 ODIs with only one half century. But Afridi has scored two half centuries in 50-over practice matches in the last three days, including 90 off 64 balls with 11 boundaries on Wednesday to catch the eyes of his captain.
"If his form remains like this, we will definitely consider him as we needed him," Misbah said at Pakistan's training camp for the tour. "The form of senior players, who are experienced enough, is very important."
Afridi has represented Pakistan in 349 one-dayers but has struggled for runs in ODIs this year. "Indian players are afraid of Afridi and I fail to understand why he was dropped," Akram reportedly said. "If the selectors were thinking that Afridi was out of form then they should have also dropped him from the Twenty20 team."
Pakistan will leave for India on December 22, and the series will begin with a Twenty20 at Bangalore on December 25 while the second T20 will be played in Ahmedabad on December 28 instead of 27.
Meanwhile, the cricket circles of the country have requested Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Zaka Ashraf to include dashing all-rounder Abdul Razzaq in both the squads by using his authority. Razzaq is an explosive player that can take away match from the reach of the rivals and can single-handedly win the match for Pakistan.
They said that Razzaq has already apologized to PCB for his criticism over Hafeez and Zaka Ashraf and now he must be forgiven and included in the squad for the sake of Pakistan. Indian also fear his backlash and reported jubilant over the exclusion of Boom Boom Afridi and Abdul Razzaq from the Pakistan squad, they added.
On the other hand, the PCB has hired the services of former captain Inzamamul Haq as the batting consultant for the short tour of India which ends on January 6 after the third ODI at New Delhi.
Misbah said Inzamam had helped the batsmen how to be mentally strong while playing against India, and be aggressive against their arch-rivals. "Inzamam is teaching us what types of hurdles we are going to face and how to get over them. No doubt in Pakistan-India cricket, you have to play aggressive cricket and we will try to apply it over there," Misbah said.
"India has depth in their batting line-up and you can't catch them with one bowler. As always, Saeed Ajmal is our trump card, but as a team if we bowl well then we do have a chance and I think it's not a right thing to depend only on Saeed Ajmal."
Misbah said the first tour between the neighbours in five years would ramp up the pressure and expectations more than usual, but he insisted they must try to treat the series as a regular event.
"There is always pressure in India-Pakistan matches and it will stay like this whether we are playing against each other regularly or not," the ODI captain said and added: "Everyone follows it and has lots of expectations, but the key for us will be to play normal cricket like we do play against other teams."
It has also learnt that India will prepare flat tracks and they have so many batsmen in their fold those can win matches for their team at their backyard. The batting paradise is very necessary for them to combat the spin of Pakistan spinners. Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Pujara, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni are the players they take match away from the opponents reach on their day beside Ashwin who also can bat as well. Pakistan will face tough challenge and every team player has to play his role for victory in the series as the Indian will not take any risk against the arch-rivals and use every tactic to clinch the rubber.