LAHORE: A marathon seven-hour-long discussion that took the shape of a tug-of-war between the selectors and skipper Mohammad Yousuf, ended in the decision to axe just two players from the 18-member team currently on tour of New Zealand in order to reduce it to 16 players for next month’s three-Test match series against Australia.
While both the untested all-rounder Yasir Arafat and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed are to return to Pakistan, there will be no other player from Pakistan going there to join the team for the Australian tour.
Younis Khan was not even discussed in the meeting so Mohammad Yousuf will be retaining the makeshift captaincy in his place in Australia, too.
Sources told Dawn that while Yousuf insisted on having Shoaib Malik in the side while also suggesting calling back Fawad Alam or opener Khurram Manzoor, Chief Selector Iqbal Qasim stood his ground. He had already made it clear to the PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt that his decision was entirely in contrast to the captain’s demand. So in order to solve the issue, the PCB chairman ate back his own words and allowed a 16-member squad for the tour as both the captain and chief selector were agreed on neither dropping Shoaib Malik nor Fawad Alam.
The PCB chairman had earlier refused to send 16 players to Australia as the board didn’t want to bear the expense of so many players. But he had to play on the back foot in order to satisfy both parties.
This is not the first occasion for Iqbal to be opposing Yousuf. He had recently also locked horns with Yousuf over sending Misbah-ul-Haq to New Zealand in place of Younis.
Misbah was not selected for the ongoing three Test-match series when Younis was leading the team. But Yousuf was named Younis’s successor when the latter suddenly decided to take rest after losing the three ODI series 2-1 in Abu Dhabi.
Soon after taking over the reins of the team, Yousuf demanded for Misbah, but Iqbal refused while preferring to send the 17-member squad to New Zealand with no replacement for Younis.
But even though Iqbal sustained pressure from the captain for some days, he eventually had to bow down to Yousuf’s demands when he also started pressurising the PCB chairman for Misbah. Iqbal, then in order to save his own skin, met the PCB chairman after which they issued a statement about allowing Misbah to go to New Zealand after watching the team’s performance in the first Test, which Pakistan lost rather dramatically. But it is also a fact that Misbah had secretly been given green signal by the PCB to leave for New Zealand on Nov 28.
Meanwhile, sources said that Yousuf was even ready to relieve Khurram but the selectors insisted on three regular openers (Imran Farhat and Salman Butt along with Khurram). Moreover, the selectors were not ready to dispose off Khurram after giving him only one chance where he scored just 10 runs in the first Test.
Sources also said that Younis’s name never came up in the discussion as neither the PCB chairman and Yousuf nor the selectors were interested in him.
‘It will not be appropriate to say that Younis has been dropped. Not being part of the team in New Zealand, he should be available for domestic cricket. But as Younis does not prefer playing domestic cricket, it is not possible to select him. Still, he can make a comeback by showing his availability and rhythm in the matches,’ Iqbal told reporters.
While commenting on Malik, Iqbal said that he has retained his place because of seniority but admitted that there was a big question mark looming over his performance.
Malik has so far scored just 46 runs in two Tests in New Zealand.
However, Younis’s availability for the tough tour of Australia was essential in order to provide strength to the depleted middle-order, which is not looking formidable with just Umar Akmal and his brother Kamran giving consistent performances in New Zealand.
While Umar, with an aggregate of 302 in two Test matches, is currently on top in the series, Kamran is following his brother with an aggregate of 179. The team wants much more effort from the other middle-order batsmen such as Malik (46 runs in two Tests), Misbah (54 runs in one Test) and Yousuf (141 in two Tests). The performance of the openers also demands of much more as Imran (90 runs in two Tests), Salman (46 runs in one Test) and Khurram (10 runs in one Test) have been quite unimpressive.
Surprisingly, Imran Farhat and Salman, two seasoned openers, were only tested jointly in the second Test where they provided an encouraging start when producing 60 runs in the first innings and 49 in the second one. In the first Test, Khurram was tested with Imran and both provided a poor start of 11 and 4.
Agencies add: The PCB said in a statement: ‘Yousuf will be captain for the Tests and ODIs in Australia while Shahid Afridi will captain the side in Twenty20 and be the vice-captain for the ODIs.’
Qasim claimed the current Pakistan team had the potential to upset Australia. ‘This squad has two quality spinners, good batsmen and a strong fast bowling line-up which, if they play to their potential, can upset Australia,’ said Qasim.
Squad: Mohammad Yousuf (captain), Salman Butt, Khurram Manzoor, Imran Farhat, Shoaib Malik, Fawad Alam, Faisal Iqbal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal (wicketkeeper), Danish Kaneria, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamir, Abdur Rauf, Umar Akmal.
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