Pakistani team is fully prepared for ICC World Cup 2011

Shahid Afridi

We have been posting interviews of different teams and their skipper about their preparation and thoughts about upcoming cricket world cup (which is now less than a couple of week from now), and now finally we have got Shahid Afridi’s interview who has recently been named captain for Pakistan for the world cup 2011.

He has said that the winning of one day series against New Zealand has boost up the confidence of Pakistan, specially knowing the fact that this time the team wasn’t a one man or two men dependent squad, rather the win consisted of a team work display from every major player of the squad not just particular well formed players.
And that’s not all, the skipper also played captain’s knock in a couple of the matches including in the match they lost, even though they lost it (at the 6th and final ODI) but Afridi tried his level best to get closer to victory but it was just not their day.
The series was won 3-2 and it was Pakistan’s 1st series win after 2 years. Despite the fact that Pakistan lost last One Day International match, they are confident enough to play without pressure during the world cup because they have named a series win right before the world cup 2011.
Shahid Afridi himself said to the press that the real moral booster was the fact that almost every player of the team contributed in the series win against New Zealand. He said one can not win a tournament depending on only single or a couple of players, to win a major tournament like world cup -all the team has to contributed more or less equally to even qualify for final. Every player should contribute in the department at which they are best at.
Pakistan will play the tournament without those 3 players that were banned because of spot fixing charges (Muhammad Asif, Salman Butt, and Muhammad Amir). But Shahid Khan Afridi said that his team is focused on the world cup and not off field sagas. He particularly said that his team is mentally stronger and hungry for world cup 2011 title.
He said that he is positive about the mental state of the squad after their win of ODI series against New Zealand, and it has become a great build up for the tournament. He believes his team has got some nice momentum having almost winning the series vs South Africa and winning the series against New Zealand has given them a nice momentum for the very approaching cricket world cup.

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