The Pakistan Cricket Board on Wednesday (June 22) announced an 18-member squad for the upcoming two-match Test series against Sri Lanka, which is scheduled to start on July 16 in Galle. The squad announced for the overseas assignment features the likes of former wicketkeeper batter and captain Sarfaraz Khan’s return to the set-up along with leg-spinner Yasir Shah.
The recent call-ups have not gone down well with former spinner Danish Kaneria, who slammed the board for making surprising selections. The former cricketer, who represented Pakistan in 61 Tests and 18 ODIs between 2000 and 2010, said the selection committee is biased towards a specific set of players.
“I don’t understand on what basis the selectors have picked the team. It seems like the selectors will never improve and think about players while picking a team. I don’t know how Ramiz (Raja) approved this team. Some changes were needed after Australia defeated Pakistan in their own backyard. Off-spinner Sajid Khan played all the Test matches against Australia, but Pakistan didn’t give a chance to Yasir Shah, who would have gotten exposed against the Aussie batters. Sajid has been unfairly treated. They also removed Usman Qadir and didn’t play him against Australia either. Zahid Mahmood was also omitted without any reason. I’m not sure whether Babar (Azam) or (Mohammad) Wasim are picking the team or doing favours for friends,” Kaneria said on his
“Sarfaraz has also been included in the Test set-up. He won’t be getting into the eleven because of Mohammad Rizwan. Instead of Sarfaraz, a young player could have been a part of the side. They also put Haris Rauf in the Test squad, but Shahnawaz Dahani can be a better bowler in the longer format. Rauf should have been kept for the T20 format.”
