COLOMBO, Sept 12: Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez expects flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi to recover from injury in time to play a decisive role in his country’s attempt to win another ICC World Twenty20.

Afridi, the Man-of-the-Series during Pakistan’s triumphant campaign in England three years ago, is hoping to overcome a thumb injury before the tournament, which runs from Sept 18 to Oct 7 in Sri Lanka.

“Shahid Afridi is a big match winner for us and hopefully he will deliver for us once more,” Hafeez told reporters on Wednesday. Pakistan open their Group ‘D’ campaign on Sept 23, when they meet New Zealand at Pallekele. The third team in their group is Bangladesh.

Hafeez added that Pakistan’s 2-1 victory against Australia in the recently-finished T20 series has given Pakistan important momentum for the World Twenty20.

“I think the morale of the team is very high even though we lost the final game against Australia,” Hafeez said of the 94-run defeat on Monday, Pakistan’s heaviest loss in T20s.

Before that, Pakistan won the first match and came through the tied second game by taking a one-over eliminator.

“We’ve really got the momentum we were looking forward to,” Hafeez said.

Hafeez believes Pakistan are well placed to repeat their 2009 World Twenty20 success, particularly because his players are familiar with the Sri Lankan pitches and conditions.

“Pallekele will suit us because the ball does a lot there,” he said. “The seamers will benefit and we should do well.

“We have a good bowling unit with Umar Gul, Yasir Arafat, Mohammad Sami and Sohail Tanvir, who is difficult to deal with his unusual action.

“The reason the Pakistan Cricket Board allowed everybody to go to Sri Lanka and play in the SLPL [Sri Lanka Premier League] was to get used to the conditions, especially in Pallekele and Colombo.”

Hafeez said the appointment of Javed Miandad as Pakistan’s batting coach would give them a major boost.

“Javed will share with us some valuable inputs and it’s a good thing,” Hafeez said. “Whatever he tells us, we look forward to it.”

He said getting to play arch-rivals India in a warm-up game would give his team an opportunity to play a pressure game even before the tournament.

Meanwhile, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the India captain, has welcomed the return to action of Yuvraj Singh after his treatment for a malignant lung tumour.

“He is a champion player, a match winner and he also helps me get the kind of balance in the side especially in a T20 format,” Dhoni said.

Yuvraj played in India’s one-run defeat to New Zealand in their T20 International game in Chennai on Tuesday.

Dhoni added: “We don’t really play with the fifth bowler and we don’t have a genuine all-rounder, so part-timers like Yuvraj, [Virat] Kohli, [Suresh] Raina and Rohit [Sharma] are very useful in T20 cricket.”

India begin their World Twenty20 campaign on Sept 19, when they take on Afghanistan in Colombo in a Group ‘A’ match. —Agencies