The Pakistan team management decided to bring back the services of Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz for the upcoming 2019 World Cup despite no including them in the preliminary World Cup squad. For that reason, three players who had made it to the preliminary squad was axed from the squad to accompany the experienced trio of Riaz, Amir and Abid Ali.
After the ouster of Junaid Khan, it is now the turn of Faheem Ashraf to express his displeasure at being left out of the World Cup squad. Following the World Cup snub, Junaid Khan took Twitter by storm after posting a picture with his mouth black taped. Despite not directly attacking the selectors or team management, Junaid Khan made his intentions pretty clear.
Meanwhile, Faheem Ashraf also expressed his disappointment and took to his Twitter handle and stated that he has faith in almighty and he will get justice for the unceremonious snub. ““My life goes the way Allah has planned but not the ways I have planned. Surely Allah is the best of planners. Thanks to Allah for everything.”
Faheem Ashraf made it to the preliminary World Cup squad owing to impressive performances in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). He bagged 21 wickets in the season which was the 2nd highest in the tournament. Faheem bagged 6 wickets in one of the matches conceding only 19 runs.
Meanwhile, former Pakistan great and currently the chief selector of Pakistan, Inzamam-ul-Haq backed the final few changes which they made. He stated that there would have no question of bringing back other players had Faheem Ashraf and Junaid Khan put up an impressive performance in the ODI series against England.
“Junaid and Faheem had been originally preferred over a few other bowlers based on their recent performances and the investment we had made on them since 2017,” said Inzamam. “They had the opportunity to cement their World Cup spots, but they were well below-par in the series against England even though they were up against the difficult challenge of bowling on placid and batsmen-friendly wickets.
“After it became obvious that the bat is likely to dominate the ball in the World Cup, we revisited our strategy and reverted to the pace of Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz,” he added.