Wahab Riaz: “We felt that with Naseem (Shah), Mohammad Hasnain and Ihsanullah unavailable due to injuries, Rauf, if he wanted to play for Pakistan, should have made a sacrifice and played for the team”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan chief selector Wahab Riaz has slammed pace bowler Haris Rauf for putting himself first instead of making the sacrifice to play in the ongoing three-match Test series against Australia.
Wahab noted that Pakistan really needed Rauf as many of their fast bowlers, including Naseem Shah, Mohammad Hasnain and Ihsanullah, are recovering from injuries.
It has been reported that the team management only wanted Rauf to bowl 10 to 12 overs per day, but the 30-year-old decided to pull out of the tour due to fitness and workload concerns.
“We felt that with Naseem (Shah), Mohammad Hasnain and Ihsanullah unavailable due to injuries, Rauf, if he wanted to play for Pakistan, should have made a sacrifice and played for the team,” Wahab was quoted as saying by NDTV.
Pakistan lost the first Test against Australia in Perth by 360 runs and will now look to bounce back in the second Test, which begins on December 26 in Melbourne.
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
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