Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur has questioned his fast bowler Wahab Riaz’s training worth ethics prior to the tour of England in May.
As they gear up for the England series, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) called a pool of 25 players for the training camp at National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore.
Out of those, 16 players will travel for the Test series against Ireland and England respectively.
Meanwhile, Riaz was a notable miss from the list that raised eyebrows over Arthur’s desire to create a ‘high-performance’ environment in the team.
The bold coach Arthur also stressed on the training ethics that rules some of the players out of the team.
As per ESPNCricinfo, the selection panel has picked five fast bowlers for the camp. Moreover, Mohammad Amir, Muhammad Abbas, Hasan Ali, Mir Hamza and Rahat Ali are five pacers in the camp.
Arthur admitted that he wants to invest in young bowlers who will have long futures. He also emphasised on Wahab’s poor performances.
“He has not won us a game in two years. I expect players that have been around for a long time to be winning us games and setting standards. We will invest in younger players who have long futures. We have good youngsters around,” Arthur said.
However, Arthur also revealed that he has no doubts about his ability but wants him to push in his work ethic and training.
“I cannot fault Wahab when he has a ball in his hand but his work ethic around training is something [that] needs to be looked at,” he mentioned.
Meanwhile, he aims to build an atmosphere where people will have a winning attitude.
“I am changing the culture in this Pakistan environment and I am not interested in players doing just the bare minimum. I want players winning us games of cricket and pushing themselves to be the best they can be,” he told ESPNcricinfo.
However, this is not a good sign for the left-arm fast bowler. He recently scored 17.4 on a fitness exam where the coach wanted him to touch 19.
Wahab needs to show more discipline in his training before he could win back the confidence of Mickey Arthur.
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