Kamran Akmal on Babar Azam: “Keep your personal agendas aside, drafting a team should be about putting Pakistan first, not personal agendas or preferences”
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Kamran Akmal, the former wicketkeeper-batsman, has warned Pakistan captain Babar Azam to keep his personal agendas aside and not treat selection matters “like a game of musical chairs”.
Akmal noted that he has seen a trend of players being selected “based on connections” rather than their performances.
He noted that shifting players between formats is also not acceptable as cricketers picked in the national team need to earn their spots rather than be given them based on friendships.
“Keep your personal agendas aside, drafting a team should be about putting Pakistan first, not personal agendas or preferences. It’s concerning to see players being shifted between formats based on connections rather than performance. We can’t afford to treat team selection like a game of musical chairs,” Akmal was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
“The team selection should not be based on transitioning players between formats solely on the basis of their connections in the board. It’s not right to include someone in the ODI lineup just because they didn’t perform well in T20I. This seems like a game of musical chairs, and it’s not fair to the team or the players.”
Azam, 28, will now captain Pakistan in their two-match Test series against Sri Lanka, which will be played in Galle and Colombo from July 16 to 28.
Pakistan Squad for Sri Lanka Test Series:Â Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vc & wk), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Muhammad Huraira, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood