Haroon Rasheed: “Omair has emerged over the past one year, which is indeed a very good sign”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Haroon Rasheed, the former Pakistan chief selector, said it is “a very good sign” that batsman Omair Bin Yousuf has started to emerge as a superbly talented cricketer over the past year.
Yousuf has been brilliant in domestic cricket over the past couple of seasons and currently holds batting averages of 43.56, 32.70 and 41.42 in first-class, List A and T20 cricket respectively.
He is now playing for Karachi Region Whites in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, which is Pakistan’s first-class competition.
Considering he is just 24 years old, the Karachi native is still young and Rasheed sees him potentially becoming a useful asset for the men in green in the future.
“Omair has emerged over the past one year, which is indeed a very good sign,” he told Cricket Pakistan.
The Pakistan team have done well lately as they beat Sri Lanka 2-0 in a Test series and Afghanistan 3-0 in an ODI series.
Recently, they were involved in the Asia Cup, where they demolished Nepal by 238 runs, shared one point apiece with India after their match was abandoned due to rain, and cruised past Bangladesh by seven wickets. However, their unbeaten streak ended when India crushed them by 228 runs in the Super Four stage.
Pakistan had the chance to make it to the Asia Cup final, but couldn’t get the job done as they lost to Sri Lanka by two wickets via the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) method.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 Asia Cup: Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel, Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Haris (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Shahnawaz Dahani, Zaman Khan.
Travelling reserve: Tayyab Tahir