Newly appointed Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) interim selection committee chairman Shahid Khan Afridi expressed his desire to have two teams to attain greater bench strength. He also talked about the communication gap between the management and players and also talk about the wickets in Pakistan.
“Will look to have two national squads to attain greater bench strength,” says Shahid Afridi
Pakistan Cricket Team has been in the headlines for their poor performance of late. They suffered a thumping 3-0 loss against England in the Test series at home. This was their second series loss at home this year after losing to Australia earlier this year. Not only for the performance of the team, but they also came under scanner for the kind of pitches they prepared for the Tests against England.
They faced a lot of criticism for preparing road-like pitches. They are currently playing Test series against New Zealand and the first game of the series ended in a draw, which saw them receiving even more flak.
Since they past few months they have been underperforming. They suffered defeat against Zimbabwe and India T20 World Cup 2022 and also lost the final. There was criticism related to selection as well, which many feel was the main reason behind their poor campaign.
"We can definitely add more players in the list of ODI probables, top performing players will always be rewarded," chief selector Shahid Afridi.
— Farid Khan (@_FaridKhan) December 31, 2022
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Following the poor record, they sacked Ramiz Raza as the chairman of the PCB and appointed Shahid Afridi as the interim chairman of the selection committee. The former cricketer had already taken some bold steps.
He recently expressed his desire to have two national squads to attain greater bench strength. And also addressed the communication gap that lacked between players and management. He said:
“Will look to have two national squads to attain greater bench strength. The major problem that I’ve observed here is the communication gap among management, doctors and the selection committee. It is important for a chief selector – be it me or someone else – to stay in direct contact with players. When I spoke to Haris and Fakhar, I got to know the better picture and I invited them to the fitness Test.”
“We can not become a top team by playing on these wickets,” says Shahid Afridi
Afridi also addressed the wickets in Pakistan, which are under severe criticism. He said that these wickets can be injurious to their pacers and they cannot become to teams by playing on those. He added:
“It will be something where bowlers will get some support and batters will also enjoy their stay, there will be some bounce on wicket. We can not become a top team by playing on these wickets. The wickets on which we’ve been playing are injurious to our bowlers, pacers will start having fitness issues and spinners will get their fingers injure. Who says we can not produce better wickets in Pakistan. We certainly can if we are allowed to do so.” he concluded.
