Controversial Yousuf Returns Back To International Cricket
The inevitable has finally happened. Just hours after Pakistan crashed to a humiliating loss – their biggest in Test match cricket – Mohammad Yousuf has been recalled to the side for the remaining three Test matches of the series between Pakistan and England.
Amongst the other players, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Essex-c783.
Yousuf has been one of Pakistan’s best batsmen in recent times, but has shown a penchant to be controversial. He had retired from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 cricket when he was dropped from the side in the World T20 in 2007, and joined the rebel league, the Indian Cricket League. He had then tried to sever his ICL contract to play in the IPL, but only managed to get drawn into a legal battle with the ICL. He gave up on Pakistani cricket again, and rejoined ICL before returning to Pakistani cricket again.
He was then appointed the captain of the side. But nine successive losses to Australia meant that he was not only out as the captain of the team, but also as a player as the board banned him indefinitely.
According to the chief selector of the Pakistani side, the team management sent across a request to the selectors to consider a change in the squad given the manner in which the Pakistani side has batted on the tour so far. In the six innings so far, Pakistan has had team scores of 148, 289, 258, 180/7, 182 and 80, which can hardly be defined as excellent.
What is unsurprising is the kind of controversy that every decision that the Pakistani selectors or the board take, stirs up. For this one, the captain and the coach are said to have expressed a surprise with the inclusion, which according to them, may not augur well for a youngster like an Umar Amin or Azhar Ali. In fact, during the post-match conference when the captain of the Pakistani side, Salman Butt was asked about Yousuf, and the skipper had said that it would not do the side any good by getting in the seniors at this stage of the series.
So, if Yousuf is able to get to England before the second Test match starts, then, there is a good chance of him playing in the second game.
That does not mean that the Pakistani side has also called up the other senior pro, Younis Khan. Younis was the captain of the side since http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, but alleged disciplinary issues crept up and for now, he is out of the side.
The other main selection news deals with Kaneria’s exclusion. Kaneria had played in all the three games on the tour so far. In these three games he had seven wickets to his name, after having conceded 377 runs – which gives him a rather expensive average of more than 50 runs per wicket. Ajmal, who is an off-spinner, and is more known for his exploits in the shorter format of the game, will now test the Englishmen in the second Test match. Ajmal has played five Test matches in his career so far, and scalped 18 wickets at an average of 42.
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