Afif not concerned about Pakistan tour

A lot of controversies have been going on regarding Bangladesh's upcoming scheduled tour of Pakistan. Bangladesh are reluctant to go there for a full tour whereas Pakistan are trying to make the whole tour happen in their homeland, where cricket was suspended for a long time after the terrorist attack on a travelling Sri Lanka team bus in 2009. 

Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hassan has said that they are only willing to play T20Is there and the board will not force anyone to tour Pakistan. He also added that families of players are tensed regarding this tour and many players are reluctant. 

Bangladesh and Rajshahi Royals allrounder Afif Hossain though is not concerned about the Pakistan tour as he is currently focused on only the ongoing Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). 

He did not say anything about going or not going to Pakistan, rather he insisted that he lives in the moment and is not thinking about it right now. 

"I live in the moment, I don't concern myself with something which is not happening. I am playing in the BPL right now, so I am thinking about it only. I am not thinking anything about the upcoming Pakistan tour," the youngster said. 

The 20-year old also spoke about his performances in this BPL and his changed batting position, as he is playing as an opener rather than his preferred no.3. He said that he was enjoying it and it was not much different in T20s. He said, "Obviously, I am enjoying it. No.3 is my favourite position in T20s. When I played for Sylhet Sixers (in the last BPL), I batted at No.3. But when there was a bit of a problem in the opening position, I opened alongside Liton (Das). This time also, (Hazratullah) Zazai opened for us at the beginning but he was dropped because of team combination and the opening slot was vacant. So I was asked if I could open the innings and I agreed. Because in T20, opening and batting at No.3 is almost the same thing, so I did not face any problem."

He added that it was not only opening the innings which he was enjoying but also the whole tournament and was looking forward to learning from senior teammates. 

"I am enjoying the whole tournament. I am trying to learn from the great and senior players that we have in our team (Rajshahi Royals) how they play on the field, what they do. I am looking forward to learning these things and use this experience in the future," Afif further added. 

In a press conference, later on, Afif said that he was trying to learn from the likes of Ravi Bopara, Andre Russell and Shoaib Malik. He said, "(Shoaib) Malik and (Ravi) Bopara plays spin well. I am trying to learn how to deal with spin better from them. I am also looking at some of (Andre) Russell's techniques which he uses for power hitting."

Afif said that he did not have any fixed goal for the tournament, rather he is trying to play match by match and do his best. He said, "I don't really have any fixed target (for myself). As always, it is my target to do my best in the next match, so I am thinking only about the upcoming match."

Also, he added that previously he was playing small innings of 20-30 runs and this time around he is looking forward to playing bigger innings.

Afif has been quite successful till now in this edition of BPL as he has accumulated 190 runs in five innings at an average of 38 and picked up three wickets in the six matches he played.