Pak team can retain T20 title with fans', media's support: Shahid Afridi

Pakistan T20 captain Shahid Afridi has said that his squad is all geared up for defending the World T20 Championship in the West Indies, adding that it needed support of both people of the country and the media.

Afridi said his boys are well prepared to tackle world’s best teams during the coveted tournament but they needed fans support to transform their talent and will into performance on the field.

“My team and I are geared up to, tactically and technically, live up to the expectations of the nation for accomplishing the task of winning in the West Indies,” Afridi said in an interview prior to departure to Caribbean.

The 15-member Pakistan contingent would leave on Saturday (today) and reach St. Lucia via Dubai and London.

“Without the prayers of the nation and supporters across the world, the Pakistan cricket team cannot achieve anything. Besides playing patriotically for Pakistan we need support of countrymen and the media. My appeal to the national media is to go for healthy criticism while keeping Pakistan’s interest above everything,” The Dawn quoted Afridi, as saying.

Afridi denied being under any pressure to perform, and stressed that players would have to lift their fielding standards if they have to repeat last year’s success.

“Fielding is crucial area in this fastest version of the game, and a lot of hard work was done to raise the standard. We are ready give our best and rest with Allah,” he said.

Afridi said his team has good mix of youth and experience that can create trouble for even the world’s best teams.

 “T20 cricket is altogether different. We got a lot of firepower in our batting.
We have experienced Misbah-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, young Umar Akmal, Khalid Latif and Salman Butt,” he said.