“The innings I played today was not to pressurise the selectors into picking me for Pakistan. I'd happy with whatever they decide for the World T20,” Ahmed Shehzad said after smacking a 46-ball 71 for Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) last week.
Just five days later, it was apparent that the selectors were far from impressed by Shehzad's assault on Karachi Kings as the 24-year-old opener was omitted from the World T20 side.
Within minutes of the dashing opener's axing, #wewantahmedshahzad was trending in Pakistan and Shehzad's fans were up in arms. But with scores of 18, 46, 7, 17, 7, 28, 4, 16, 9, 8 in the last 10 T20s critics would argue that the batsman had it coming.
Khurram Manzoor, 29, replaced Shehzad, who has been more or less a regular part of the national side since 2009.
But the most important man in the whole scenario, Pakistan chief selector, Haroon Rasheed, says Shehzad's case was 'difficult to back' considering the batsman's consistent failures.
Rasheed used the word 'rest' on several occasions when asked what Shehzad needed to fix.
“Shehzad was failing to perform consistently for a long time and that is why he was dropped,” said Rasheed while talking to Dawn.
“Manzoor was brought in as his replacement due to his recent run of form in domestic cricket and impressive performances against England Lions,” he added.
Manzoor, who hails from Karachi, scored 193 runs in 5 five one-day games against England Lions in a series played recently at Dubai. The right-handed opener amassed 309 runs in 11 matches of the National T20 Cup played last year and impressed with 235 runs in just four matches during the recently concluded National One-Day Cup.
“Manzoor has been selected on basis of his experience which gave him the edge over other available options,” said chief selector while revealing that Shehzad needed time away from the international stage to fix his batting problems.
Rasheed said that the door was open for Shehzad and Sohaib Maqsood provided they prove themselves again at the domestic level.
“It would have been more difficult for Shehzad and Maqsood to recover if their run of failures were further prolonged on the international stage,” said Rasheed.
Shehzad's axing was, however, met with surprise in some sections of the international media as well.
“Shehzad's omission seems a sheepish way for Pakistan cricket to be entering the brave new world it so craves,” Barnaby Read of Sports360 wrote.
But Rasheed insists “a rest will help them [Shehzad and Maqsood] come back stronger”.
Only time will tell whether a 'rest' would help Shehzad but the chief selector also shrugged off reports of reservations over the squad by Pakistan head coach Waqar Younis
The Asia Cup, which will be played in the T20 format this time round, kicks off February 19 in Bangladesh followed by the World T20 which is set to be played in India from March 9.
