Grant Bradburn: “No one can overlook the abilities of Abid Ali. The opener has scored runs with an average of 49 in his career. He is currently playing cricket after recovering from health issues”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Grant Bradburn, the Pakistan head coach, has made it clear that “no one can overlook the abilities” of opening batsman Abid Ali.
Abid had been Pakistan’s first-choice opener in Test cricket until he suffered chest pains while batting during Central Punjab’s Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in December 2021.
He was subsequently diagnosed with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) and had two angioplasty surgeries.
Abid is currently featuring for Lahore Region Whites in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, which is Pakistan’s first-class competition.
Even though the 35-year-old has not yet returned to international cricket since the health scare, Bradburn is still keeping his name firmly in his mind.
“No one can overlook the abilities of Abid Ali. The opener has scored runs with an average of 49 in his career. He is currently playing cricket after recovering from health issues,” Bradburn was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
After beating Sri Lanka 2-0 in a Test series and Afghanistan 3-0 in an ODI series, Pakistan were recently involved in the Asia Cup.
They started with a comprehensive 238-run win over Nepal before sharing one point apiece with India as their match was rained off after the men in blue were bowled out for 266.
Despite the soggy end to their clash, Pakistan advanced to the Super Four stage and beat Bangladesh by seven wickets in Lahore.
Everything fell apart for the men in green from here as India crushed them by 228 runs.
They still had a chance to progress to the Asia Cup final, but could not do it as they lost to Sri Lanka by two wickets via the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) method.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 Asia Cup:Â 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