Players don’t face any consequences, it’s selectors, coaches who will be fired

Pakistan's early exit from the Champions Trophy, where the team lost to New Zealand and India, has sparked ongoing criticism of the selectors and coaches.

According to reports, Pakistan's journey in the Champions Trophy ended in the first round due to defeats against New Zealand and India, while the match against Bangladesh was washed out due to rain. Since then, there has been a storm of criticism.

Sources say that during a recent PCB meeting, one of the selectors told the participants that after the loss to India, when the players gathered on the field, Captain Mohammad Rizwan told them not to be disappointed, saying that losing and winning is part of the game, and that the players would not be affected, but it would be the coaches and selectors who would lose their jobs. This statement did not sit well with the authorities. 

Interestingly, it was one of the players who had informed the selectors about this conversation in the "team huddle." Chairman Mohsin Naqvi was not in favor of any hasty changes, so the jobs of the selectors and coaches were saved.

An official also complained about Shaheen Shah Afridi, saying that he doesn't follow the instructions given to him in matches. He is told to bowl yorkers, but he does his own thing. Both Shaheen and Haris Rauf were considered not useful for One-Day cricket and were limited to T20Is. 

However, if we look at the statistics, both senior pacers played a crucial role in the victory during the One-Day series in Australia last November. Haris, who was named Player of the Series, took 10 wickets, while Shaheen took 8. Later, during the One-Day series in South Africa, Shaheen took the most wickets—7—and contributed to the team's victory. Yet, after two Champions Trophy matches in unfavorable conditions for pacers, both were dropped and labeled as poor One-Day bowlers, even though they could have been successful in the conditions in New Zealand.

Similarly, Babar Azam, who was part of the last ICC T20 Team of the Year, was not given a place in the national team. The selection committee's strange decisions have been widely criticized. It is worth noting that Babar and Rizwan were dropped for playing slow, but the new captain, Salman Ali Agha, has only scored 50 runs in 6 T20 International matches, at an average of 10 and a strike rate of 79.