Discarded Pakistan batsman Ahmed Shahzad could find himself in trouble after questioning his ouster from the national team and criticising the selection process. Shahzad said on a channel that he could not understand the logic behind dropping him from the Zimbabwe-bound squad and omitting him from the central contracts list. “I don’t know the reason behind my ouster despite having scored runs recently,” said the young batsman.
He also insisted that he was not responsible for any misunderstanding between former national one-day team captain, Shahid Afridi and now outgoing coach, Waqar Younis on the last tour to the West Indies. “I was not responsible for this dispute between the captain and coach in the West Indies. Yes Afridi is like a mentor to me and I have learnt a lot from him and he has guided me a lot,” said Shahzad. The sudden omission of Shahzad from the Pakistan team and the central contracts list had led to speculations that the PCB dropped him because he created misunderstandings in the team on the West Indies tour.
Former Pakistan manager, Intikhab Alam also claimed that Shahzad was dropped because of disciplinary and attitude issues and he had not improved despite being personally advised by the board chairman, Ijaz Butt to focus only on cricket. Shahzad conceded that the PCB chairman had called him and told him that he should just concentrate on his cricket. “I have learnt from my mistakes and that is the way you move forward. But now I am out of the team.” Under the PCB code of conduct for players, anyone who has been on the central contracts list can’t speak
to the media without the permission of the board or his immediate team manager even three months after the expiry of his contract.
