Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif has revealed why opener Imam Ul Haq, despite being consistent in the 50-over format and scoring 90 in his last game, was excluded from the second and last home series match against New Zealand.
While Pakistan won the 4th ODI by 102 runs, they failed to whitewash New Zealand’s second-string side, as they lost the fifth match by 47 runs and also lost their no.1 rankings in ODIs only after 48 hours.
The left-handed opener Imam tweeted an ambiguous statement on social media just before the game that generated a lot of interest from fans. Due to his exclusion from the team for two straight games, many people thought that the opener was upset.
Rashid Latif, a former cricketer for Pakistan, cleared up the confusion by saying that Imam’s hamstring problem was the real cause of his benching in the fourth ODI when speaking to a digital sports channel.
“Fakhar initially wasn’t playing the fourth ODI, but just an hour before when the match was about to commence, Imam complained of a hamstring issue. There was apparently no choice left because Fakhar was not included in the playing XI. Shan was replacing Fakhar; Imam would’ve opened the inning. Fakhar might have demanded that even if he couldn’t perform in the fourth match, he still would be willing to play the fifth and last ODI match, and that is exactly how things panned out. Shan played a good knock, Fakhar couldn’t perform, and Imam didn’t play”, Latif said.
The 54-year-old stated that Fakhar was a part of the rotation policy and that Imam’s hamstring issue was the reason why things had come to this point.
There’s No Threat To Imam’s Position In The National Team- Rashid Latif
Latif summarized the inside information by saying that Imam is a crucial member of our ODI team and contributes a large number of runs from his end.
“Only yesterday, it was speculated that Imam wanted to play the last match. Management countered him by asking if his hamstring issue had been resolved. Fakhar already expressed his wish to play the final match; Shan had a decent inning. So this might be the reason why Imam couldn’t be adjusted in the playing squad of the last match. Because as a matter of fact, some commitments need to be respected between the players and the management. Otherwise, both the players were a part of the rotation policy, and it wasn’t that big of an issue. So what happened was on the cards due to the former sequence of events.
Other than that, there’s no threat to Imam’s position in the national team. He’s one of our main players. Mostly 18 to 20% of runs fall in his bucket and as many in Fakhar’s”, he concluded.