The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has confirmed their new selection committee members of the side, after sacking the two coaches- Abdul Razzaq and Wahab Riaz on the back of their poor performances during the recently concluded Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, in the United States of America and West Indies.
With the group stage exit from the event, where Pakistan lost their first two games, against the USA and the arch-rival India, the former being in a super-over while the latter found them failed to chase down a low 120-run target after being 72/2 in 12-overs and having opener Mohammad Rizwan still in the middle.
The players who were selected for the tournament either haven’t performed or have been asked to play in an unnatural position. Fakhar Zaman, who has been an explosive opener for the national team for a long time, was dropped down at number four.
The captain Babar Azam and the veteran wicket-keeper of the side Mohammad Rizwan too didn’t have a great time in the opening position and as the reports have claimed, both of them could end up losing their position in the shortest format of the game.
Respective captains and coaches of the format to select their teams for Pakistan
Wahab Riaz while being dismissed as the selector of the side questioned how one vote could dominate six, as the committee was comprised of seven members.
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‘I don’t agree with the statements being discussed about adding pressure to the members of the selection committee.’ The former Pakistan left-arm pacer has posted on his ‘X’ handle. (Formerly known as Twitter).
His departure is a fall from grace for a man who was very close to the board chairman of the national side, Mohsin Naqvi, but a decision was made by performing a U-turn in the whole procedure in which the players have been picked for the national side.
The Pakistan Cricket Board now has six chief selectors over the last four years, which included the likes of Wahab himself, who wasn’t announced for the post but was supposed to play the role, while the past members were Misbah-Ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Inzamam-Ul-Haq and Haroon Rashid- all serving a very brief stint.
Now with the dismissal of both Riaz and Razzaq, the rest five members of the side are Mohammad Yousuf, Asad Shafiq, the data analyst of the side Bilat Afzal, and the respective coach and captain for the format- where would be Gary Kirsten for the for the white-ball games and Jason Gillespie for the red-ball game.
The captain is yet to decide. Even though it’s confirmed that Shan Masood who became the new leader of the tea in the longest format of the game during their last tour in Australia towards the end of 2023. But with the poor performance of Babar Azam in both of ODI and T20 World Cup in eight months, the decision has not been made whether he would keep on continuing for the limited-overs format captaincy.
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The good thing for Pakistan is they do not need to decide on the role as their next T20I series would be towards the end of this year when they face Australia away from home.
For the moment, the selection of the Test team for the two-match series against the visiting Bangladesh side would be done by those three- Yousuf, Shafiq, Afzal, and the captain Masood and the coach Jason Gillespie.