Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi will shift his family’s base from Karachi to Lahore to prepare for 2016 World Cup T20.
Pakistan’s Cricket headquarters is in Lahore so that he can fully utilise the facilities at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore.
The 35-year-old is originally from Pakistan’s troubled tribal region and lived in Karachi from his childhood and long been identified with the coastal city.
He said he wanted to leave “ no stone unturned” in his championship quest.
If Pakistan wins the World Twenty20 it would be an ideal swansong for Afridi.
Shahid Afridi, who is set to end his international career after the T20 world cup to be held on March 11 to April 3 next year.
Afridi led Pakistan to a 2-0 win in the T20 series in Zimbabwe on Tuesday, his team’s sixth consecutive win in the shortest format of the game.
Afridi who hardly managed to get 4 runs and failed to get any wicket in the two matches said, he was not worried about his form.
“I have plenty of matches before the world event,” said Afridi, who was player of the tournament in Pakistan’s only World Twenty20 win in England in 2009.
He said he is happy with the performance of his current team.
“We have tried several new players and they have shown talent, so the combination in my mind for the World Twenty20 is shaping up well and I am confident that we will produce a good result.”
Pakistan’s recent performance against Zimbabwe was quite good and Leg spinner Yasir Shah returned career-best figure as Pakistan spun their way to a crushing 131- run victory over Zimbabwe in the first of three one-day internationals at Harare Sports Club on Thursday in dry conditions reminiscent of some of their slower venues back home, Pakistan dug themselves out of a hole to post 259 for six, before routing Zimbabwe for 128 in 37 overs with all 10 wickets going to the spinners.
Although Zimbabwe started the day looking short on energy, they sparked to life in the sixth over John Nyumbu made up for a dropped catch by running out Pakistan captain Azhar Ali with a direct hit. From that point, Pakistan slumped to 35 for three as seamers Tinashe Panyangara and Luke Jongwe were rewarded for their persistence with the wickets of Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez respectively.
While Sarfaraz Ahmed and Shoaib Malik resurrected the innings as they added 65 for the fourth wicket, they swiftly undid their good work by running down the pitch at Zimbabwe’s Spinners. After Malik was bowled by a dipping Nyumbu delivery for 31, Ahmed hit a Graeme Cremer delivery straight to deep midwicket to depart for 44 and leave Pakistan in trouble at 128 for five.
However, Mohammad Rizwan and Imad Wasim continued their good form from the Twenty20 series, which Pakistan swept 2-0, as they put on 124 for the sixth wicket.Both batsmen ended up scoring a run a ball on a challenging surface, with Rizwan finishing unbeaten on 75 and Wasim run out for 61 in the final over of the innings.