Haroon Rasheed: “The door is open for his return if he works on his issues and improves. Many cricketers in the world have been dropped and made a comeback and played cricket for a long time”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Haroon Rasheed, the Pakistan chief selector, has made it clear that the door is not closed on wicketkeeper-batsman Azam Khan when it comes to his international career.
Azam recently featured in the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan, but only made scores of 0 and 1 in the two games he played.
He was subsequently dropped for the limited overs series against New Zealand, which consisted of five T20Is and five ODIs.
The 24-year-old earned a recall to the Pakistan team for his performance in the 2023 Pakistan Super League (PSL), where he amassed 282 runs in 10 matches for Islamabad United, which included two half-centuries, at an average of 40.28 and a strike-rate of 161.14.
Despite being axed from the side for the series against the Black Caps, Rasheed reiterated that Azam can get back into the team in the future if he makes the improvements the selectors want to see from him.
“The door is open for his return if he works on his issues and improves. Many cricketers in the world have been dropped and made a comeback and played cricket for a long time,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Pakistan will now tour Sri Lanka for two Test matches, which will be held 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
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