Being friends with the captain creates more responsibilities: Faheem Ashraf

Islamabad United’s Faheem Ashraf believes that his friendship with team captain Shadab Khan adds to his responsibilities, he told Cricket Pakistan in an interview Saturday.

“If your friend is a captain so responsibility on you increases. We behave as professionals on the field and our friendship is off the field,” he said. “As a player and friend, I will always appreciate Shadab but you all have seen as well how brilliantly he is captaining the side.”

He talked about behaving professionally on field, while maintaining a strong friendship off the field.

“You must have seen that he scolds us on the ground, but we don’t react because at that time he is our captain, not our friend. Besides, when we come to the hotel, we tease him about what he said to us on the field. We don’t do anything on the ground as whatever he does is for the team,” the left-handed batsman said.

Cricket Pakistan asked him why teams are consistently opting to bat second and whether this meant winning the toss secured the match.

“The pitches of Karachi are like this. If you have wickets in hand and you play according to the required rate, there is not much difficulty,” he said. “The toss is not in anyone’s hand, I say the team that plays well wins. Toss does have an impact like you have seen whoever is batting second is winning but the team which will make fewer mistakes will win.”

He is confident that his team will perform better this year. Islamabad United finished at the bottom of the points table last year with six losses out of their 10 games.

“We made some mistakes due to which the team was eliminated from the tournament. However, we are trying not to repeat our mistakes and are trying to give our 100 per cent for the team,” he said.

When asked who he looks up to for inspiration, Ashraf named Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul.

“When I started cricket, Pakistan’s bowling line-up included Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Umar Gul,” said the right-arm fast-medium. “By watching their bowling videos anyone can become their fan. I used to follow Mohammad Asif a lot because of his swing bowling and Umar Gul because of his yorkers.”

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