Pakistan’s all-rounder Shahid Afridi has said that his side’s real challenge will be to do well against England in an upcoming series, starting from January 17, 2012 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Men in Green have been performing consistently well over the past year and have won six series on the trot despite not playing any cricket on home soil.
Although the team and management are extremely happy over the recent results, they know that they have not played cricket against most of the top teams in the past year.
Pakistan have won One Day International (ODI) series against New Zealand, West Indies, Ireland, Zimbabwe,Sri Lanka and Bangladesh over the past year, but they are yet to face quality teams like England, Australia,South Africa and India in the limited-over competition.
However, the team has a chance to prove their mettle once they go against the Poms at the start of next year. Both sides will be facing each other in all three formats of the game and will look to a solid competition.
England will start the series as favourites, considering their rise in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) Test and ODI team rankings. They are at the top spot in both these formats, but have to prove themselves in 50-over cricket.
Both Pakistan and England are evenly matched when it comes to playing ODI cricket, but the latter side will have a psychological advantage, as they defeated the same opposition in all three formats of the game back in 2010.
The challenge to do well against a better team excites Afridi, who has been performing exceptionally well since coming out of retirement this year.
The veteran added, “Winning (throughout the year) gave us a momentum and moral is high. We have developed a winning unit but it will be exciting when we face England and that would be a real test. Playing against team like England or Australia is very exciting and then we will see where we stand.”
Misbah is yet to lose a single series as captain of the Pakistan team and will be aiming to continue his winning momentum in 2012. However, the start to the year will be very important for him and the entire team.
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