Umar Gul: “In Test cricket, in Pakistan, you need a bowler who can consistently bowl 140-145 kph because of the slow pitches. When the ball gets old, you need pace to reverse the ball to deceive the batsman. It was shocking that he [wasn’t] there in the squad”
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
Umar Gul has expressed his surprise at the fact that pace bowler Naseem Shah wasn’t included in the 15-man team for the Test series against Australia from the beginning.
Naseem was initially selected as a reserve before being added to the main squad.
He ended up being one of Pakistan’s top performers as he claimed six wickets in two Tests, which included a fabulous four-wicket haul, at an average of 28.33.
“In Test cricket, in Pakistan, you need a bowler who can consistently bowl 140-145 kph because of the slow pitches. When the ball gets old, you need pace to reverse the ball to deceive the batsman. It was shocking that he [wasn’t] there in the squad,” Umar told ESPNcricinfo as quoted by Cricwick.
Naseem was not picked for the ongoing limited overs series, where Pakistan won the ODI series 2-1.
They will now be looking to finish the series on a high by winning the one-off T20 International on Tuesday.
Pakistan’s T20I squad: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan, Asif Afridi, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir
[Total_Soft_Poll id=”27″]
Iftikhar, Hasan ali not deserve for this match
Azam khan, Sharjeel and naseem shah