Mohammad Asghar: “They say we are not producing spinners in Pakistan. I am at my peak but I have not been given a chance in first-class cricket for 2 years”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan left-arm spinner Mohammad Asghar is fully aware of all the talk about the country “not producing spinners”, but pointed out that he can help solve the dilemma as he is at his peak.
The 25-year-old has performed well in domestic cricket in the past, but hasn’t been given the opportunity to play any matches since November 2023.
Currently, Asghar has a bowling average of 32.28 in first-class cricket, 29.71 in List A cricket and 23.95 in T20s.
On top of this, he helped the Peshawar Zalmi win the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in 2017 as he recorded figures of 3-16 off his four overs in the final against the Quetta Gladiators.
“They say we are not producing spinners in Pakistan. I am at my peak but I have not been given a chance in first-class cricket for 2 years,” he was quoted as saying by respected journalist Saj Sadiq on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Pakistan team recently played in the 2024 T20 World Cup and lost to the United States of America and India before bouncing back to take down Canada and Ireland.
Even though they ended the group stage with a 2-2 record, it was not enough to get them through to the Super Eights.
Pakistan Squad for 2024 T20 World Cup: Babar Azam (capt), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan (wk), Usman Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Abbas Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed
Media compain has been started to save the friends and parchi In team . No one talk about the inclusion of Shadab in all matches despite his poor performance. Nor talked about Abrar Ahmad being benched for two months . Also Azhar Mahmood still defend the final XI selection and says that Shadab inclusion was due for strengthening batting order, which shows that all the team management including Skipper is trying to hide the bad performers with rifts in team. No one asked him why middle order batter Ifthikar was wasted and sent after Imad and Shadab?
Haris performance at initial and death overs costs pak but all still silent to save him . Pak is only team in world who basic strategy is to retain big names in team without any much winning performance. On the other hand the team which only perform against minows and useless matches and want to Regaining the form of their players only . So it’s time to send back Shadab, Haris Rauf , Azam khan , Abbas afridi and Shaheen Afridi for domestic only . And their inclusion should be linked with continuous domestic performance. And new and energetic domestic performers should be given same nos of chances .
SA dropped Shamsi being expensive one match but we Continously depending on such kinds of players .
Now it’s time for PCB to see the matches record in details and find out who is responsible for such kind of defeats . Everyone have small knowledge of cricket can easily finds it . No need for any kind of report from any side . First Major surgery should take place .
Further surprise will be retaining current members in Selection Committee, as all of these are responsible for such kind of performance, by ignoring Talent and domestic performers.
Thanks Abrar Hussain Shangla