Exclusion of Mohammed Amir from playing XI in first two T20I’s surprised and shocked all the fans as a T20 team without Mohammed Amir was difficult to imagine. Who can forget his deadly spells in Asia cup and World T20? Still, the Pakistan captain decided to drop the young pacer for the first two T20I’s. Sarfraz Ahmed, the Pakistan Twenty20 International skipper, however, defended his decision to drop Amir “We have tried to keep a winning combination so we didn’t try to change too much, that is also our target, to give players a longer run in the side to build their confidence. Mohammad Amir is our main bowler and he will definitely play an important role for us in the future.” He said

“It was our strategy to play Umar Akmal at No. 6 since we needed a finisher in the lower order, we scored about 50 runs in the last five overs and we felt that was enough as we had set a target of a 150+ score. A lot of credit goes to Shoaib Malik too, the way he played with me at the end. We needed a senior player to stay at the wicket and he did that for us.” He added.

Well, after analysing Ahmed’s point it looks like he is talking correct but fans are not able to accept this fact that Amir is not a part of the team. One of the main reason behind him being axed from playing XI can be his average show in England as he could not live up to the expectations on England soil.

Despite Amir’s absence, the Pakistan bowlers made an early impact as strike bowlers were able to uproot early wickets in both the games. They never felt the need of Amir in the game. Captain Sarfaraz Ahmed is in a dilemma as including Amir means tinkering with winning combination, which is difficult for every captain to do whereas keeping him out of the squad brings captain under criticism as fans want Amir in the team at any cost.

Pakistan is set to take on West Indies in the third and final T20 on Tuesday. Amir participation in the game is still in doubt.