Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently announced the Test squad for the historic home series against Australia
10 February, 2022
PHOTO: AFP
Pakistan is a place where players went through intensive scrutiny from former players, analysts, fans. Without viewing different aspects like performances and impact, forming a general opinion towards players is quite easy as we are also living in a digital age where everyone is entitled to utter anything.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently announced the Test squad for the historic home series against Australia. Few potential players became part of the squad while some were kept in reserves.
As soon as the squad came out, former players and critics started to analyze the loopholes. One of them was the greatest batters Pakistan ever produced, Younis Khan.
Younis, who is also the highest run-getter for Pakistan in Tests, questioned Shan Masood and Imamul Haq's performances in domestic cricket and why they were picked in the national side.
The 44-year-old was also unaware of the fact that all-rounder Faheem Ashraf is part of the Test side since the 2020 tour of New Zealand.
Interestingly, Younis was the batting coach when Faheem came in the side but he totally forgot this and questioned their selections.
This is what he said while sitting on a leading Pakistan news channel. "If I look into the performances of some cricketers, recently our domestic season concluded and four-day is quite important. Faheem Ashraf has made a comeback, what performances he had in domestic cricket? how much four-day cricket did Haris Rauf and Imamul Haq played?"
"Shan Masood... He has been playing fantastic in PSL, have we picked on the performances of T20 Cricket," he added.
It is just sad that we have all the available resources during these times to find out the stats and performances of these players. In Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2021-22, Shan scored 502 runs (three centuries) in eight innings at an average of 71.71. His strike was also 95.98, the most who scored over 500 runs in the competition.
Now we analyze Imam's performances in the domestic tournament and he was also picked for Bangladesh Tests on the basis of these performances. The left-hander amassed 531 runs in seven innings at an average of 106.20. He registered two centuries and as many fifties.
Just for the sake of criticism, individuals like Younis Khan is questioning the selection of the players without any knowledge. The thing that needs to understand is that people across the globe listen to a figure like him and it would be ideal to have prior information before judging player's ability and performance.
