Shoaibs Duo Back in International Cricket
The two Shoaibs, Malik and Akhtar, made returns in the national team which would correctly be considered noteworthy anywhere else but in Pakistan, as the Pakistan Cricket Board publicized a 15-man squad for the Asia Cup kicks off from June 15in Sri Lanka. Few new faces have also been included in the squad but much of the attention will plunge on the returning duo.
Shoaib Akhtar is all set for his return to the national team for the Asia Cup to be played in Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, Sri Lanka in the middle of June. The fast-bowling Shoaib, who will turn 35 in August, last played for Pakistan about a year back and last donned the whites on the tour of India in 2007. After that outrageous tour, he was axed from the Central Contract and was penalized with a heavy fine (7 million rupees) for speaking against the board. Later on, without getting consent from the board, he went for a cosmetic surgery while he was still under contract and gave an expert analysis though the team was busy on national duty.
His career might have been dogged by disciplinary problems and injuries, but the Express pacer did not give up and made a feisty return to the domestic circuit preceding season, where he bowled a few remarkable spells during the Pentangular Cup limited overs tournament in Karachi.
With no Umar Gul to lead the bowling, young Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi deems that a fit-again Akhtar can be an effective weapon in Pakistan's bowling armoury for T20 and One-Day International matches. However does the statement mean true or false whther the Express pacer, who knocked down South Africa in a match where he could bowl only 5 overs, will never put on the whites?
Newly appointed Pakistan captain, Shahid Afridi, was eager to have him in the team. Bowling as many as 12 overs, the Express pacer went through a meticulous fitness test yesterday. Although some PCB officials were not completely convinced of his overall fitness at the outset, he seems to have passed unanimous approval.
"We got an okay from the medical team and Shoaib [Akhtar] was given a good report so he has been picked," said the chief selector, Mohsin Khan. "We took both of them to nets yesterday and gave them an extensive playing and fitness test, for nearly five hours and I'm happy to say both of them passed it".
Fitness, of course, has never been an issue with Malik. Only a few months back PCB had banned him for a year from playing for Pakistan for the reason being, imprecisely, a bad disciplinary sway on the side. But after a forthrightly farcical judgment, in which the PCB said that they kept an eye on him over three months of no cricket era and found him to be improved, he is also back in the team.
PCB chairman, Ijaz Butt, said last week that former captain Shoaib Malik was free to come back for Pakistan however the board of governors had to sanction the decision first. However Mohsin did say that all the chosen players had been given approvals by Butt. There was conjecture before the announcement that Afridi was not ardent on selecting Malik reason being their fairly-publicized discrepancies; the matter will no doubt raise its head in the coming weeks.
With the comeback of the two Shoaibs, the touring squad is a potentially unpredictable one, intimidating to keep the team manager, Yawar Saeed, active. Kamran Akmal is the first-choice and lone wicketkeeper in the team and travelling with him will be Aaqib Javed, the assistant coach who, in a board's inquiry, clearly alleged against Akmal of intentionally underperforming in the disastrous tour of Pakistan.
After various selection run-ins in his short period, Mohsin was eager to stress that the finalized squad has left no stakeholder dejected.
"This is a balanced side and it has been selected with the approval of everyone, the captain, coach and selection committee so there is no question of any disagreement," said Mohsin Hassan Khan.
We shall just wait and have to see what the dynamics of this selection will be and hope the players deliver what is expected of them.
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