Pakistan National Cricket Team assistant coach Azhar Mahmood has released a fresh statement regarding the exclusion of premier pacers Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah from the Test squad for the England series.
Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi were two of the shock names omitted from Pakistan’s Test squad for the second and third Tests against England, along with Babar Azam and Sarfaraz Ahmed.
Pakistan Fields Just One Pacer In Playing XI For 2nd Test Against England
The Pakistan Cricket Board on Monday announced the playing eleven for the second Test and Aamer Jamalda went with an all-round combination of three spinners and one seam bowling.
The spinners selected for the match in Multan are left-arm spinner Noman Ali, leg-spinner Zahid Mahmood and off-spinner Sajid Khan.
Unless the part-timers get an opportunity to bowl, it will be the second time that the Pakistan National Cricket Team will play a Test match with only one seamer in the squad. The last time this happened was in the Karachi Test between Pakistan and West Indies in 1980, when Imran Khan was the only pacer in the team.
Also, superstar batsman Babar Azam has been replaced by Kamran Ghulam and the 29-year-old is all set to make his Test debut and play at No.4.
We knew we would have to rest Sahin and other important players because…: Azhar Mahmud
Speaking to reporters ahead of the second Test, Azhar Mahmood revealed why they have adopted a spin strategy for the upcoming match. He also revealed that while Shaheen Afridi was overworked, Naseem Shah was battling some niggles and it was important to manage his workload.
“This was the 3rd Test match after the new management took over. Even before that, we had difficulty scoring 20 goals. Now we thought we had more spin options so we went with this strategy. Naseem had some niggles while Shaheen played a lot of cricket, so we decided to rest them,” said Azhar Mahmood.
“We have to take advantage of our conditions. We announced the squad for one test match because we knew we would have changes. After that we fly to Australia to play white ball cricket. We knew we had to rest Shaheen and other important players because we have non-stop cricket for the next six months,” Azhar Mahmood said. .
We had a clear plan of what pitches and what to prepare against England for Bangladesh – Azhar Mahmood
Azhar Mahmood also revealed his plans for the pitches he wants for Pakistan’s home Test series. The Pakistan assistant coach said they wanted pace-friendly tracks for the series against Bangladesh and spin-friendly pitches for the matches against the Three Lions. Azhar Mahmood said:
“We had a clear plan of what pitches for Bangladesh and what to prepare against England.
“Our approach was pace wickets against Bangladesh and spin pitches against England. Our instructions to the curator for the first Test was that the ball should spin after the second day. But the pitch didn’t even change until the fifth day. Hopefully the ball will start spinning on the ninth day.”
Azhar Mahmood further stated that the youngsters of the Pakistan team will not be under pressure as they have played a lot of games in first-class cricket.
“I don’t think our youngsters will be under any pressure. Except Mehran, all of them have been playing first-class cricket for some time. And I think youngsters should start their career at home under favorable conditions,” said Azhar Mahmood.
Also read: Shaheen Afridi has quit the Pakistan Test team, according to his father-in-law Shahid Afridi
