LAHORE: Head coach Mickey Arthur termed Mohammad Amir’s decision to retire from Test cricket “unsurprising”, saying the bowler had been thinking about it for over a year.
Arthur, on Monday, revealed the management had tried to ease Amir’s workload over the past year and experimented with the possibility of making him an overseas-only bowler. Ultimately, however, Arthur said he respected Amir’s decision and hoped it would give Pakistan a “rejuvenated” limited-overs bowler.
“It was on the cards for a long while,” Arthur told ESPNcricinfo. “Amir had been speaking to me about it with me for some time now. His Test career was taking a strain on his body. It’s not about management here. It’s about his desire to play Test cricket and the effects it has on his body.”
“I think Amir’s an unbelievable bowler and reluctantly I accepted his decision because that’s what he wanted to do and that’s what he thought was best for himself. What it does do is give us a white-ball bowler that I think we can get a longer period from.”
