Umar Gul: “If you look at the bench then you need to have the availability of Ihsanullah and Wasim Jnr”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Umar Gul has called for the pace duo of Ihsanullah and Mohammad Wasim Jnr to be picked in Pakistan’s team for the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India.
While he doesn’t expect them to be in the main pace line-up, Gul pointed out that there are perfect back-ups to Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf.
Both Ihsanullah and Wasim Jnr are still in the infancy stages of their respective careers, having played one and 15 ODIs respectively.
Despite their inexperience, Gul feels they are among the top bowlers in Pakistan and should therefore be included in the World Cup squad.
“If you look at the bench then you need to have the availability of Ihsanullah and Wasim Jnr,” he told Cricket Pakistan.
Neither Ihsanullah nor Wasim Jnr were picked for Pakistan’s two-Test series against Sri Lanka, which they won 2-0.
Wasim Jnr did get the chance to play in Pakistan’s three-match ODI series against Afghanistan, which the men in green won 3-0, but he went wicketless in the one game he featured in.
The 22-year-old was recently in Pakistan’s team for the Asia Cup and played one game against Sri Lanka, but went wicketless. Ihsanullah, meanwhile, was not selected for the tournament.
Pakistan got off to a strong start in the tournament as they beat Nepal by 238 runs before sharing one point apiece with India after their match was rained off.
Heading into the Super Four stage, they continued to impress as they pummelled Bangladesh by seven wickets.
However, things didn’t go according to plan from this point on as the men in green lost to India by 228 runs.
They still had a chance to reach the Asia Cup final, but ended up losing 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), 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