Pakistan’s former captain and new chief selector Shahid Khan Afridi has announced the Pakistan team for the three one-day international matches against New Zealand. As usual, the captain will be Babar Azam and he will be accompanied by Muhammad Rizwan, Haris Rauf, Imamul Haq, Muhammad Hasnain, Muhammad Nawaz, Muhammad Wasim Jr., Naseem Shah, Shan Masood and Shahnawaz Dhani. Fakhr Zaman and Haris Sohail are included in the comebackers. The inclusion of Kamran Ghulam, Osama Mir, Tayyab Tahir, Salman Ali Agha, etc. shows that the selection committee is now prioritizing performance in domestic matches.
Shahid Afridi who can be guessed from his character that he speaks the truth and he also repeatedly says in the press conference that he cannot satisfy everyone as chief selector. “Some people will criticize me and some people will encourage me, but I will always prefer the structure of our cricket that domestic performers should get a place in the team and this is what will take Pakistani cricket forward.”
Although Shahid Afridi has been selected as the chief selector for a few months, his press conference in Karachi on Thursday may be his last pressor, but the way he is working is admirable. Because you cannot take Pakistani cricket up until you do selection on merit. The selection of Usama Mir and Tayyab Tahir is a proof that this time selection is done on merit. Haris Sohail, who has been making runs for the past several months, why the previous selection committee was not selecting him? This is a question mark. But Shahid Afridi made some good decisions as soon as he took charge as chief selector . And because of these good decisions Haris Sohail made a place in the team.
The way Shahid Afridi speaking the truth was also seen in his press conference that when he was asked why he did not include Sharjeel Khan in the 15 boys, he said without hesitation that they did not get green signal from PCB Chairman Najam Sethi in this regard. The decisions of the new selection committee of PCB prove that this time their intention is to work in good faith. some of the decisions of Rameez Raja were also very good like adding Saud Shakeel to the Test cricket ,other than that other players were included by the selection committee who are still in form. If the new selection committee wants to get the trust of the people, it will have to take all decisions on merit.
If the decisions of Shahid Afridi or the new selection committee are reviewed so far, it will not be wrong to say that almost all their decisions are good and helping Pakistani cricket to go ahead. If we want to become the number one Test team in the world, then we have to get used to playing on a bouncy wicket, which is not possible with the pitches of our current grounds, for that you have to prepare a bouncy track. You will have to play fast bowlers and adapt to modern cricket, only then you can be selected for the world’s No. 1 team.
And if Shahid Afridi is appointed as the chief selector, which seemed impossible, Pakistan’s T20 team can be better, because no one can understand T20 cricket better than Shahid Afridi. The way Shahid Afridi said in a statement that a batsman with a strike rate below 135 should not be selected in the T20 team.What he meant to say was that Pakistan’s domestic matches, which are overseen by the PCB, must compete among themselves to develop players and adopt an aggressive style. The boys should be told that if their strike rate is above 135, they will easily make a place in the team.
