Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore wants senior batsman Misbah-ul-Haq to be included in the preliminary list of 30 probables for the ICC T20 World Cup and has conveyed the message to the selectors. Reports coming from the Pakistan Cricket Board said that Whatmore had sent a request to the national selection committee to consider Misbah again for the T20 format.
“Whatmore has requested the selectors from Sri Lanka to include Misbah’s name in the T20 World Cup preliminary squad that has to be sent to the ICC this week,” one source said.
The request comes just few weeks after the national selectors dropped Misbah from the national T20 team and the Board also replaced him as captain with Mohammad Hafeez.
Misbah was retained as captain of the one-day and Test sides with Hafeez leading the team in the two T20 matches against Sri Lanka recently.
However another source said that, “the selectors are not keen on having Misbah back in the T20 format and have informed Whatmore about this.”
Interestingly, another source said when the decision to replace him as captain and drop him from the team was conveyed to Misbah by the selectors and senior board official Intikhab Alam, he had reacted strongly.
“Misbah had reacted strongly at the meeting in which he was told about his ouster, insisting that he was being treated unfairly and the selectors should give him one good reason for dropping him from the T20 squad,” one source said.
He said at the meeting Misbah accused the selectors of succumbing to pressure from the public and media which believed he did not fit into the T20 format.
Misbah had ranted at the meeting about not being informed properly and respectfully about the decision to change him as T20 captain and later even went to the PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf at his residence to lodge a protest.
“Misbah’s contention was that he had accepted charge of the team in all three formats at a tough time for Pakistan cricket and gelled the team together and also produced results. So, there was no justification for ousting him from any format,” the source said.
Pakistan are due to play a series of three ODIs and 3 T20 matches against Australia from next month.
Pakistanis are uncouth and do not treat their heroes fairly. Misbah is one of the best captains and now proving to be even better than Imran who could not solve openers crisis in his times. Misbah has really jelled the team well. This is the way Miandad was shown the door when he scored 58 in his last ODI innings against Zimbabwe in 1993. And this is the way PCB treated M Yousuf and Yonus Khan.
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