I will do my best to repay the trust they have shown in me – Shaheen Afridi on leading LQ
The newly appointed Lahore Qalandars captain is optimistic after getting a leadership role, says that the fans will see the ‘best PSL season’ of LQ and a ‘completely different team’ in the upcoming edition of HBL PSL.
The newly appointed Lahore Qalandars skipper, Shaheen Shah Afridi is optimistic after getting a leadership role, says that the fans will witness the ‘best PSL season’ of LQ and a ‘completely different team’ in the upcoming edition of HBL PSL.
The 21-year-old sat down with a sports TV show and talked about the preparations, expectations from the players, new combinations, his captaincy, and much more.
“I am feeling extremely good and I am honored to be leading a fantastic PSL franchise. For me, this is a new opportunity and I have the support of experienced players around me and I will be learning on the job as well,”
said Shaheen.
Talking about the experience of old players, Shaheen talked about the likes of Mohammad Hafeez and some foreigners participating in the campaign as well.
“I was the vice-captain last time around and I learned a lot but being the captain, I will look towards others for support to ensure that this franchise moves in the right direction under my leadership,”
said Shaheen.
“I was not sure whether the franchise will take a chance on me as captain because I am still young but the management has backed me and I will do my best to repay the trust they have shown in me.”
Rumors were all over the social media, saying that Shahid Afridi advised the youngster not to take the captaincy role yet and focus on his bowling for another year.
“Yes, I did ask Lala and asked him about his verdict. He did advise me that I am perhaps too young for such a huge responsibility but I want to improve my international cricket by being able to handle more and more pressure. Although the captaincy has a lot of added pressure I will try to handle things in a mature manner,”
Shaheen replied.
On the International level, a lot of examples are in front of us where the pacers have taken the role of captaincy and proved their worth in both departments. Shaheen Afridi aims to do the same.
“Our PM Imran Khan was also a fast bowler and a captain, then there are examples of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, and recently Pat Cummins, Wahab Riaz, and Tim Southee are all doing a fantastic job. Since fast bowlers are fighters and lead from the front, captaincy is similar in that regard and I aim to improve as a cricketer with this new added responsibility.”
Talking about leading the Pakistan National team, Shaheen replied:
“There are a number of players who can manage to lead Pakistan. However, I want to give my input and I want to help the team in any way possible.”
Shaheen also talked about the fact that LQ is looking to fix their middle-order problem as it had always been in trouble and he is looking forward to solving this problem in the seventh edition of PSL.
“Our top-order was performing but our middle-order was lacking the finishing abilities but now we have addressed the problem. Kamran Ghulam and Abdullah Shafique’s inclusion will help the team whether it is the top-order or the middle-order.”
In the last season, LQ was unable to qualify for the next stage of the league after ending up at a fifth place with 10 points. Shaheen explained:
“For us, we lost the momentum following the break and that cost us dearly. Once you lose the momentum, it is very difficult to get it back quickly. We suffered defeats but our Abu Dhabi matches were not one-sided; we will try to learn from the mistakes that were made.”
Remaining optimistic for the PSL 7, Shaheen also expressed his desire to achieve more in International cricket among all the formats and get a chance to rank alongside the Pakistan Legendary bowlers.
“I don’t want to beat them [likes of Waqar, Wasim] but I want to be ranked alongside them as one of the best Pakistan fast bowlers and that remains a goal for me.”