ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi made it clear on Tuesday he is hoping for a recall after being dropped for last month’s Champions Trophy.
The 33-year-old veteran of 348 one-day internationals paid the price for a below-par performance on the tour of South Africa, where he remained wicketless in all five ODIs and scored only one half century.
But Pakistan’s humiliating three successive defeats in the Champions Trophy have raised his hopes for this month’s tour of the West Indies for five ODIs and two Twenty20s.
“I am doing all the hard work and I want to play both one-day internationals and Twenty20s,” Afridi told reporters in Lahore, where he has been practicing at the National Cricket Academy for the last three weeks with former international Mansoor Rana.
“I have tried to bat for longer periods in the nets and have worked on quite a number of things with Mansoor Rana,” Afridi said.
Afridi has scored 7,201 runs and taken 348 wickets in ODIs. But his form dipped sharply in the last 12 ODIs, when he scored only 161 runs at an average of 17.88 and took just four wickets.
However, Afridi believes he still has a lot to offer his country and should be allowed to play himself back into form.
“I think I am still better than lots of other (Pakistan) players and … when you get dropped, you can’t expect a player to perform,” he said. “You must keep a match-winning player with the team when he is not performing.”