Rashid Latif: “If Azhar Ali was not performing then the selection committee should have selected Shan Masood or brought in Sarfaraz Ahmed. There were options to choose from but Pakistan did not utilise them”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif said Shan Masood or Sarfaraz Ahmed should have replaced veteran top order batsman Azhar Ali if he wasn’t performing well.
Masood was recalled to the Pakistan Test side following an outstanding campaign for Derbyshire in the County Championship, where he scored 1,074 runs in eight matches, which included three centuries and four fifties, at an average of 82.61.
Despite being part of the squad for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka in July, he was not picked in the playing XI for both matches.
As for Sarfaraz, he is regularly in the Test team, but has not played a Test match since January 2019.
“If Azhar Ali was not performing then the selection committee should have selected Shan Masood or brought in Sarfaraz Ahmed. There were options to choose from but Pakistan did not utilise them,” Latif told Cricket Pakistan.
Pakistan are now playing a T20 tri-series against New Zealand and Bangladesh in Christchurch.
They will then fly to Australia for the 2022 T20 World Cup, which begins on October 16.
Pakistan’s Squad for T20 Tri-Series against New Zealand and Bangladesh: Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Iftikhar Ahmed, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Mohammad Hasnain, Shan Masood, Mohammad Nawaz, Usman Qadir, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Khushdil Shah, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Wasim Jr
Pakistan’s 2022 T20 World Cup squad: Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Shan Masood, Usman Qadir
Reserves: Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Haris, Shahnawaz Dahani