Saturday, April 9, 2011

"I won't return to Test cricket" Afridi says

KARACHI: Pakistan's ODI captain Shahid Afridi has ruled out returning to play Test cricket despite being urged to lead the side in all three formats of the game by former skipper Imran Khan .

Afridi decided to retire from Test cricket last year although he was named captain for the entire Test and one-day series against Australia and England.

He retired from Tests after Pakistan lost to Australia under his captaincy and since then the flamboyant all-rounder has focused on playing just one-dayers and Twenty20 cricket.

"I don't think I am the sort of player who is ideal for Test cricket. So I have no plans to make a comeback to Test matches," Afridi told reporters at a function hosted for the World Cup team.

Afridi insisted that he enjoyed playing limited overs cricket and wanted to focus on these two formats and do justice to his captaincy.

"I am thankful to those former players who believe that I should also lead the team in Test matches but I don't think I am cut out for the five-day format," he said.

Imran has said that Afridi can return to Test matches primarily as a bowler.

Afridi, however, said that he was keen to make up for his relative lack of success in batting.

"I will focus a lot on my batting on the coming tour to the West Indies because I know people want to see me scoring runs. Now even my daughter has started saying 'Baba Boom Boom out'," Afridi said.

The experienced all-rounder, who has made 320 ODI appearances said he was confident of making his mark as a batsman in the West Indies.

"Batting is one department I want to regain my form," said Afridi who last year scored two hundreds in the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka.

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