Aaqib Javed hails Shaheen Afridi's leadership skills

Shaheen Afridi and Zaman Khan's heroics landed Lahore Qalandars a title for the second time in HBL PSL on Saturday at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.

The Director of Cricket Operations and bowling consultant for Lahore Qalandars holds high regard for Qalandars skipper Shaheen Shah Afridi. While talking to Cricket Pakistan, the 50 y/o hailed the left-arm medium pacer and equated it with someone having 'nerves of steel".

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"Match-winners and leaders are a different breed altogether. Shaheen entails a different frame of mind. He believes he can easily grab two to three wickets, which he often does. But sometimes, things can go south naturally, and that's okay. It doesn't matter if his two overs were expensive for the team in the final; he covered that up by taking as many wickets in his latter overs. This is the golden attribute which only leaders have," Aaqib said.

"The best coaching in the world is to recognize someone's talent and introduce them to it. Who would've thought that Abdullah Shafique could be such a potential pick for the shorter format, but he proved it - we only detected his capabilities. As a coach, all you have to do is polish a young player's talent to the extent that they have a firm persuasion about it," he added.

Aaqib further talked about players' strong emotional attachment to Qalandar's name.

"Sikandar Raza recently said that PSL for him starts and ends at Qalandars. If Qalandars does not retain him, he wouldn't be playing in the tournament. Rashid claims the same, and so does Harry Brook and everyone else in the clan," he said.

The franchise director wasn't really bothered about the Haris Rauf's death bowling that almost costed the final match against Multan Sultans.

"T20 is unpredictable - more so this is a hit or miss format. If it's your day as a bowler, you will easily get the batter at the first delivery or later. But if luck decides to play its cards for the batsman, then brace yourself to be beaten up for 20 runs per over or more. This is how shorter formats work. Haris is emotional by nature; he was crying after he conceded runs. What worst could have happened if we wouldn't win this final? No doomsday would've been transcended on us from up above. Sports are meant to be enjoyed - nothing else."