Former Pakistan cricket captains Zaheer Abbas and Moin Khan have said the national selectors should stick with young players in the team instead of recalling senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.
“The Sri Lanka tour has many matches and it must be used to groom new faces and younger players. I am sure coach Dav Whatmore, with all his experience, will do a good job with them,” Zaheer was quoted as saying on Monday. Zaheer added that Yousuf should not expect direct selection into the national team without proving his match fitness in domestic cricket. “He has not played domestic cricket for a while, so he needs to play domestic first-class matches to prove his match fitness,” Zaheer reported to have said.
Moin also felt that Yousuf should first play domestic cricket before hoping to get selected for the national team. “Yousuf is a great batsman. If he is match fit, fine, he can be considered for selection. But first he must be asked to play domestic cricket because selecting a player directly is injustice to those who perform well in domestic cricket,” he said.
Zaheer said it was time for Pakistan to start giving more exposure to younger players. “We need to find and groom players who can serve the national team in any format for the next 10 years. The Sri Lanka tour is perfect for this purpose. Whatmore is an experienced coach and he and selectors must take bold decisions,” he said. Moin also advised captain Misbahul Haq to stop playing Twenty20 cricket and focus on Test and one-day cricket. “I think Misbah must take this decision himself. He needs to move away from T20 cricket and give way to a younger player and captain,” he said. Moin backed giving the Twenty20 captaincy to Shahid Afridi and said if he was not willing to lead the side, then Shoaib Malik should be given the job. “It is time we started looking ahead to the future and planning well in advance,” he said.
Where were these players when Shoaib Malik was included in the side during the UAE series. Their recommendation of Afridi and Shoaib Malik should not be considered seriously. How many more international matches afridi needs to mature as a batsman. was it not the same Shoaib Malik who divided the team into small groups, done dirty politicking resulting in demoralization of the players, was he not the same one who on several occasions have played only for himself, leaving the team high and dry when the team needs him?
Include the players in the team with a vision and true love and passion to serve the country and not for their own personal survival.
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