Loved playing cricket against India, says Shahid Afridi

India-Pakistan cricket is one of the most gruelling contests around the world. This rivalry captures the imagination of entire cricketing world and fans show a keen interest in this encounter. However, the arch-rivals didn’t play each other for quite some time now due to strained relations between the two countries. The likes of Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, M Amir and many others never played an India-Pakistan Test.

In fact, these two teams last played each other in a full-fledged bilateral series back in 2007-08. Although these two teams face each other in ICC events, the fans would love to watch them take each other on in a bilateral series. Even though there were talks of the two teams playing each, they didn’t manage to get clearance from their respective governments.

Shahid Afridi expresses happiness about playing in Switzerland

Shahid Afridi just played a two-match T20 series in Switzerland. These matches were played in St.Moritz on a frozen lake and Afridi’s team won the series 2-0. Sehwag’s Badrutt’s Palace Diamonds took on Afridi’s Team Royals in the Ice Cricket Challenge in Europe. Stars like Andrew Symonds, Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith, Daniel Vettori, Nathan McCullum, Grant Elliot, Monty Panesar and Lasith Malinga took part in the series.

The cricketers thoroughly enjoyed their time playing cricket in ice which was probably one of the toughest challenges they ever faced. It was an absolute treat for the fans to watch these stars playing together. Royal’s captain Afridi spent some time with the fans after the series and also interacted with India Today to share his thoughts.

Afridi shared his opinion on how to promote cricket in Europe. He said that T10 cricket is the best way to promote cricket anywhere in the world. Afridi thanked the fans for the support in the Ice Cricket Challenge.

About the India-Pakistan ties

Shahid Afridi was questioned about India-Pakistan ties and asked if there were any possibilities of the teams playing each other in the near future. Replying to this, Afridi said that he is hoping for a good, positive series against India soon. “As ambassadors of the game, I think we should stay positive; that is the main thing. I think I enjoyed playing cricket in India throughout my career. Cricket is like a religion in India and also the people love to see Pakistani players,” Afridi said.

Also, he was asked how Virat Kohli was different from the other Indian captains. To this, Afridi said that MS Dhoni took on a huge challenge to lead the team. He said MS handled the senior players quite well and was very successful. Afridi continued that Virat took it on from MS and said that he is a very aggressive player. “I like Virat’s aggression and I’m hopeful that Virat can repeat what Dhoni did in the past. Also, his performances are very important for the team,” Afridi concluded.