The maverick all-rounder from Pakistan Shahid Afridi has just finished his T20 commitment with the Northamptonshire. He said that the English team has a slight advantage over the Australian counter parts in the upcoming Ashes series because of the home advantage.
The England team has not lost the Ashes in home soil for 14 years and Afridi feels that the English bowlers will pick themselves up and perform in the Ashes. Cricket Australia on Monday quoted Afridi who said that the English bowlers know their conditions well and that they bowl better at home than overseas.
Afridi said that he will not be able to pick a favorite for the Ashes series but felt that the home team will have a slight edge over Australia.
Australia is fresh from a 2-0 commanding series victory at the Caribbean. England earlier drew the series 1-1 under similar conditions. They also drew the home Test series against NZ 1-1 and have a lot of problems in the squad that need to be sorted out.
Afridi also spoke about his career and said that McGrath and Michael Clarke were the two players who caused him most trouble over his 19 year international career.
Afridi praised McGrath and said that he is the best new ball bowler to have played the game during his career. Afridi was dismissed by McGrath 5 times in 25 ODI’s. He said that he was a really hard bowler to hit regularly and that he never gave the batsman a chance to go after him.
He named Clarke as the best batsmen he has bowled to. He felt that Clarke was hard to remove because of his confident and excellent footwork against the spinners.
The first Test of the Ashes series will be played at Cardiff in less than a month.