Australia’s captain, Ricky Ponting, knows how to play mind games. In a tradition of targeting a key player of the opposition, ahead of the Australia-Pakistan series to be held in England, Ponting took a veiled dig at Pakistan’s new Test captain and the state of affairs in Pakistan.
ricky ponting exults
Ponting touched upon Afridi and suggested it was Afridi’s ability as the Twenty20 captain than real Test credentials that allowed Afridi to ascend to becoming Pakistan’s Test captain, knowing that Afridi has not played Test cricket in four years, “He hasn't played a lot of Test cricket of late, if you read between the lines, he's almost in there as a leader and captain, not necessarily one of their best Test players. 'We will test him out. I think even with our one-dayers in Australia last year with our quick bowling the way they did to him, I think we can sort him out in Test cricket, that's for sure.''
Ponting also touched upon the general notion that the Pakistan board had no choice but to turn to Afridi, having run out of other captaincy options, ''I guess with him being Twenty20 captain there was a natural succession to him being Test captain, with all the other guys they've tried there having not succeeded.”
But Ponting also said that the Pakistan captaincy issue did not worry Australia, ''But that's irrelevant to us, it doesn't matter who is captain, it doesn't matter who is playing, we'll just have to make sure we're focused on the little things we need to, and be the best team we can be.''
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