Usama Mir: “I was surprised that the mystery spinner they picked instead of me didn’t play any matches”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Usama Mir admitted he is surprised that Pakistan mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed didn’t play a single game in the 2024 T20 World Cup after taking his spot in the squad.
Abrar has enjoyed a strong start to his international career, but has only started getting regular chances as of late.
Pakistan’s two main spinners for the T20 World Cup – Shadab Khan and Imad Wasim – weren’t at their best throughout the tournament, which made it even more astounding that Abrar wasn’t given an opportunity to prove himself on the biggest stage.
Shadab went wicketless in all four games he played, while Imad took three wickets, with all of them coming in the final group stage clash against Ireland.
“I was surprised that the mystery spinner they picked instead of me didn’t play any matches,” Mir was quoted as saying by respected journalist Saj Sadiq on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Abrar has seen more game time in the past couple of months as he took six wickets in two ODIs against Zimbabwe at an average of 13.
He then proceeded to claim four wickets in two T20Is at an average of 12.25.
As for the tour of South Africa, he picked up three wickets in two T20Is at an average of 22 before going on to take four wickets in two ODIs at an average of 20.
Right now, Abrar is in action in Pakistan’s two-Test series against the West Indies and snapped up five wickets in the 1st Test in Multan, which the men in green won by 127 runs.
The 2nd Test gets underway on January 25 in Multan.
Pakistan Squad for West Indies Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Kashif Ali, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Noman Ali, Rohail Nazir (wicketkeeper), Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha
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