Mumbai: The national senior men’s selection Committee has continued to ignore former captains Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and pace bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi and has excluded them from the T20 squads for the upcoming tours of Bangladesh and West Indies.
The Pakistan selectors decided not to include the senior players in consultation with white-ball head coach Mike Hesson and skipper Salman Agha, according to a report in Telecom Asia Sport (www.telecomasia.net).
The decision seems based on their recent performances in white-ball tours and the ICC Champions Trophy.
Rizwan led Pakistan to a 2-0 T20 series defeat in South Africa, in which Babar also took part. After that, both were dropped from the New Zealand tour and the home series against Bangladesh.
“Pakistan’s management and selection committee want to move on from Babar and Rizwan despite Hesson and Salman both saying that the door was not shut on the two former openers, whose strike rate and batting form in T20Is were part of Pakistan’s problems in recent defeats,” a senior official of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) told www.telecomeasia.net.
The selection committee, which now has former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed and former pacer Sikander Bakht as observers, has ensured that squads for the three-match T20I series in Bangladesh and the West Indies will have none of these problematic players, the report said, quoting another source.
Pakistan play Bangladesh July 20, 22, and 24 before flying to Florida to play five T20Is against the West Indies.
The report also claimed that Hesson had wanted Babar and Rizwan in the squad for the Bangladesh series, but former star Aaqib Javed refused to include them by saying that some youngsters should be tried in a relatively easier home series, sources said.
Shaheen was part of the squad on the New Zealand tour, where he was taken apart by Tim Siefert as Pakistan lost the series 4-1. Shaheen got just two wickets in four matches at an economy of 10.23 and was dropped for the last game, the report said.
Sources said reports of Shaheen being non-cooperative with the captain and team management also went against him.
The report said that Hesson met all three stars – Babar, Shaheen, and Rizwan – during preparatory sessions in Lahore and discussed his strategy for the selection, and briefed them on his plans for the three players.
Sources also said skipper Salman Agha was against Shaheen’s inclusion in the team as he wants to continue with his plans to try out youngsters and prepare a good backup.
Pakistan are also scheduled to play T20I series with Afghanistan, Ireland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Australia to give their team some solid preparations for next year’s World Cup to be hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
