Latest reports from a number of sources reveal that the Pakistan Cricket Board has dumped the Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi and the spinner Saeed Ajmal from the list of the central contract with immediate effect.

The poor form of Pakistan team under Afridi in T20 world cup played earlier this year is the reason why Afridi is dropped, earlier the PCB Chief Shahryar Khan openly said that now they will not consider Shahid Afridi. The dropping of Saeed Ajmal is also not a surprise as the mystery spinner who made a return in international circuit last year was after being banned for illegal action, was ineffective in his last international series against Bangladesh. Pakistan team was whitewashed by a margin of 0-3.

Also with the emergence of young talent in Pakistan, selectors will look for new prospects for upcoming champions trophy and T20 world cup 2018. To take a note, both Afridi and Ajmal are above the age of 35 years. Afridi is 36 years old whereas Ajmal has seen 38 monsoons of his life.

We may see both of these players announcing their retirement soon as now they will have nothing to play for. The retirement of Afridi will be regarded as the end of an era as Afridi made his debut in international cricket as a young boy aged 16 years old in the year 1996. He started as an aggressive opener scoring a ton of 40 balls in just his second appearance in international cricket. It was the first occasion when he got to bat. He soon turned himself into an all-rounder for his nation. Till now he has taken 540 wickets in international cricket and has scored over 11,000 runs across all formats of the game.

Saeed Ajmal has played 33 Tests and 110 ODIs for Pakistan bagging 169 and 182 wickets respectively.

We can expect a retirement call from Ajmal soon whereas Afridi may take some time to decide upon this.