Mickey Arthur: “Within our squad, we have the ability to bowl off-spin potentially with Salman Agha and Iftikhar Ahmed”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Mickey Arthur, the Pakistan team director, is considering utilising Salman Ali Agha and Iftikhar Ahmed’s off-spin more often.
While both are known for their batting, they are capable bowlers and have been known to provide important breakthroughs or curb the flow of runs.
With the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup fast approaching, spin will play a key role in matches as the pitches will provide a lot of assistance.
Keeping that in mind, Arthur noted that having two batsmen who can both bowl a few overs of spin will be very useful for the men in green.
“Within our squad, we have the ability to bowl off-spin potentially with Salman Agha and Iftikhar Ahmed,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
The Pakistan team recently beat Sri Lanka 2-0 in a Test series and Afghanistan 3-0 in an ODI series.
Most recently, they featured in the Asia Cup, where Salman scored 40 runs in four matches at an average of 20, while Iftikhar made 179 runs, which included a career-best 109 not out, at an average of 89.50.
Salman didn’t take any wickets during the tournament, but Iftikhar finished with four at an average of 30.50.
Pakistan kicked off their campaign with a 238-run win over Nepal before sharing one point apiece with India after their match was abandoned due to rain.
Having progressed to the Super Four stage, they continued to shine as they took down Bangladesh by seven wickets.
After this, things fell apart for the men in green as they lost to India by 228 runs before suffering a two-wicket defeat via the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) method to Sri Lanka, which knocked them out of the Asia Cup.
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
[TS_Poll id=”87″]