Pakistan need aggressive individuals like Sarfraz Ahmed to move forward, says Afridi

Former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi is off the view that the young Pakistan team need to put in a lot of hard work and need more aggressive individuals like ODI and T20I captain Sarfraz Ahmed to move forwards in all formats of the game.

Veterans like Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan have already announced that they would be retire from international cricket after the three-match Test series against West Indies. With their absence from the dressing room, Pakistan would surely be looking on players like Sarfraz to take the charge and carry the team forward.

"We need a lot of hard work going forward," Express Tribune quoted Afridi as saying while speaking in an interview with the International Cricket Council (ICC).

"No doubt, Sarfraz is an aggressive captain and the team needs such an individual. My best wishes are with him and I hope he finds the right combination as soon as possible so that he can build his team and gain confidence," he added.

37-year-old Afridi earlier this year announced his retirement from international cricket, bringing to an end his illustrious 21-year career.

Nicknamed 'Boom Boom', the all-rounder was active in the International T20 format after having quit Test cricket in 2010 and ODIs in 2015.

Afridi said that the biggest achievement of his career was to represent Pakistan at the international level.

"Playing for Pakistan has been a big achievement for me. It can't get bigger than that," he said.

"Cricket makes you cry more than it makes you laugh. We laughed, cried, enjoyed ourselves and a great deal, even became emotional and we were aggressive at times as well. So we have been through many phases. I never thought of playing for so many years and I would like to thank the Almighty for this," he added.

The 37-year-old further asserted that during the course of 21-year-old long career, he couldn't achieve everything he aimed for but he did manage to fulfill a few dreams.

"I did have dreams and goals and I managed to achieve some of them. I consider myself lucky and I got plenty of satisfaction by being involved in the game and it's like a dream come true," he said.

Afridi finished his international career having played 27 Test matches, in which he scored 1,176 runs with a highest score of 156 and 48 wickets. In the 398 ODIs that he played throughout his career, he notched up 8,064 runs, with a highest score of 124, and took 395 wickets with his leg spin.

His T20I international career saw him play 98 matches and score 1,405 runs and take 97 wickets.