Shahid Afridi hopes for Multan victory but says Peshawar ‘strongest’ PSL team

KARACHI: Pakistan’s former cricket captain Shahid Khan Afridi has said his T20 squad, the Multan Sultans, was capable of lifting this year’s Pakistan Super League trophy but Peshawar Zalmi was the “strongest” side in the ongoing tournament in Abu Dhabi.
Peshawar Zalmi will play its fourth Pakistan Super League final today, Thursday, after a thumping eight-wicket victory over Islamabad United in the playoffs on Tuesday. Zalmi won the PSL champions title in 2017 and was the runner-up in the 2018 and 2019 editions. United has won the tournament twice.
Afridi could not join his team during the PSL playoffs in Abu Dhabi this month due to a back injury.
“I believe if Multan Sultans continues with its [current] form, it can win,” Afridi told Arab News in an interview on Tuesday. “But the combination of Peshawar is excellent when we see their bowling and batting. So in my view, the strongest team [in this tournament] is Peshawar.”
“It’s a matter of happiness that my team [Multan] has qualified for the finals, and I extend congratulations to the entire squad, especially [captain Muhammad] Rizwan,” he said.
Afridi said Multan did not have a good start in this year’s series but significantly improved its performance, which helped it qualify for the final. He said the team’s pacer Shahnawaz Dahani, who hails from a remote town in Pakistan’s Sindh province, was an excellent addition to the squad, saying his performance reflected there was immense hidden talent in the rural areas of the province.
“I am happy that a player has come from Larkana,” the all-rounder said. “We see few players [from rural Sindh]. Most of the players come from big cities. So, the presence of such talent means there is ample flair for cricket out there, but we need to provide requisite facilities to the [rural] areas [to explore the latent talent].”
Afridi also congratulated the Pakistan Cricket Board, PSL franchise owners and players for the successful completion of the T20 tournament, which had to be posted in March due to COVID-19 cases among players and officials, but was resumed this month in the UAE.
“It’s very difficult to reschedule any tournament after it has been postponed once,” he said. “The PSL is a big tournament, and I would like to give credit to the PCB, owners of all franchises and players since they came out of a difficult situation and the tournament is being concluded in such an excellent way. So, the credit goes to all.”