Mohammad Yousuf: “There’s no reason to burn out Shaheen and Hasan Ali on these slow, spin-friendly pitches! Aamer Jamal and Faisal Akram would be better options”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Legendary batsman Mohammad Yousuf reckons Pakistan should pick fast bowler Aamer Jamal and left-arm spinner Faisal Akram on “slow, spin-friendly pitches” instead of the pace duo of Shaheen Shah Afridi and Hasan Ali.
Yousuf feels that Jamal and Faisal would have had more of an impact in the recently two-Test series against South Africa, which ended as a 1-1 draw.
In that series, Afridi picked up five wickets at an average of 28.60, while Hasan only played one match and went wicketless.
Going forward, Yousuf wants Pakistan to assess the conditions and pick cricketers who will excel on certain surfaces instead of tiring out their key players.
“There’s no reason to burn out Shaheen and Hasan Ali on these slow, spin-friendly pitches! Aamer Jamal and Faisal Akram would be better options,” he was quoted as saying by PakPassion on X, formerly known as Twitter.
After the Test series, Pakistan defeated South Africa 2-1 in both the T20Is and ODIs.
They were then involved in a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka and claimed a 3-0 win.
Pakistan will now feature in a T20I tri-series alongside Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe from November 18 to 29.
Pakistan squad for Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe T20I Tri-Series: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan (wicketkeeper), Usman Tariq
Reserves: Haris Rauf, Sufiyan Muqeem