New Delhi: Hours after Pakistan suffered a demoralising defeat by an innings and 47 runs to England, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that retired umpire Aleem Dar, Aaqib Javed, and Azhar Ali have been named in its ‘recomposition’ of the senior men’s selection committee.
The development also comes just 10 days after Mohammad Yousuf resigned from the panel, and its latest revamp arrives at a time where Pakistan’s form in all formats is at its lowest ebb. The trio joins former player Asad Shafiq and team analyst Hasan Cheema, who now has voting rights in the selection panel.
The PCB didn’t elaborate whether Pakistan head coaches, Gary Kirsten (white-ball) and Jason Gillespie (red-ball) would continue on the selection committee as voting members, or who would be the chief selector of the revamped panel.
Dar recently announced that the ongoing season would be the last time he would do umpiring and it marks the first instance of Pakistan having an acclaimed umpire in their selection committee.
The revamped senior men’s selection committee’s first task would be to pick Pakistan squad for the remaining two Tests against England, with the second one starting on October 15 – after the crushing defeat in the first Test at Multan saw them become the first team in the history of Test cricket to lose a game by an innings after scoring over 500 runs in their first innings.
They also have to select Pakistan’s white-ball squads for future series in Australia and South Africa. Following the sixth straight defeat in their home conditions at Multan under Shan Masood’s leadership, Pakistan have now slipped to the bottom of the World Test Championship points table with only 16 points from eight games with a points percentage of 16.67.
