Mohammad Amir: “Was it the system who told him not to play Abrar Ahmad or bench Fakhar after [the] first match”
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Left-arm seamer Mohammad Amir has questioned whether former captain Babar Azam or the entire Pakistan cricket system was at fault for underutilising spinner Abrar Ahmed and opening batsman Fakhar Zaman.
Amir wondered why Zaman was benched after the team’s opening match against the Netherlands in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, especially when he returned to smash 81 and 126 not out against Bangladesh and New Zealand respectively.
As for Abrar, he was a reserve player for the tournament and wasn’t called up to the main squad, even when Shadab suffered a concussion in the match against South Africa.
Amir feels Abrar could have been very useful for the men in green, especially since the spin trio of Shadab, Mohammad Nawaz and Usama Mir were failing to take wickets consistently.
Given some of the questionable decisions made during the World Cup, Amir wants to know who is to blame.
“Was it the system who told him not to play Abrar Ahmad or bench Fakhar after [the] first match,” he told Geo News as quoted by NDTV.
Pakistan won their first two games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before succumbing to defeats at the hands of India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
Even though they fought back to beat Bangladesh and New Zealand, they could not book their spot in the semi-finals.
To add insult to injury, the men in green lost their final group stage game against England by 93 runs.
Pakistan’s next assignment will be a three-match Test series against Australia, which gets underway on December 14 in Perth.
Pakistan Squad for Australia Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi