Pakistan Captain Afridi calls it a day for Test Cricket

Pakistan’s newly appointed captain Shahid Afridi made an unexpected announcement today when he decided to retire from Test Cricket after the second test that will soon begin in Headingly. The dashing batsmen announced to step down following his team’s 150 run loss to Australia at Lords. Surprisingly, he had just made a comeback into test cricket after four long years and this announcement has surely come as a shock for all his fans.

In the longer format, Afridi has never been the same demolishing batsman he is in ODIs and has always been reluctant to play test matches. Over his 12 year long career he has played a meagre 27 tests and was very inconsistent throughout. Now, with failures in both the innings of the Lord’s test he has certainly realized that test cricket is not his cup of tea.

Shahid Afridi looked in spirit when he announced the decision

“I would rather focus on one-day and Twenty20 cricket,” said Afridi. “I did the wrong thing. I think my temperament is not good enough for Test cricket and I am struggling with my side as well. I wasn’t interested in playing Test cricket but the board asked me to go and take a look as they didn’t have a choice. So, I took up the responsibility. They asked me to take a chance and maybe I would have enjoyed it. I wasn’t good enough.” said the allrounder.

Now, vice-captain Salman Butt is the favourite to bag the skippers job and after his good outing in both innings he has surely cemented his place in test side for a while. But with his retirement, problems continue to increase for Pakistan. Whosoever becomes the new captain will be the fifth captain Pakistan has had since 2009.