Strategic changes likely in selection matters
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LAHORE: A high-level meeting is scheduled for Thursday at the PCB headquarters in which the cricket board is likely to make strategic changes to the current policies pertaining to the national team selection following miserable results in the recent limited-overs matches in Bangladesh.
The meeting between the PCB chairman Shaharyar Mohammad Khan and the national selection committee, led by Haroon Rasheed, will also discuss selection strategy for the upcoming three One-day Internationals and two T20 matches home series against Zimbabwe and the full tour of Sri Lanka in June and July.
The strategy will be discussed, keeping in mind both plus and negative points of the selection, under which Pakistan squad was picked for the One-day International series and the T20 game against Bangladesh, who went on to complete a historic 3-0 triumph in the one-dayers before defeating Pakistan for the first time in a T20 International.
According to well informed sources, PCB chairman and the selectors have different views over the importance of senior players as compared to the youngsters.
It is learnt that the selectors, while acknowledging the performance of juniors like Sami Aslam, Mohammad Rizwan and Saad Nasim during the Bangladesh series, they still believe there is much difference between the technique of senior and juniors.
But Shaharyar wants more youngsters should be included instead of picking up old guards while the keeping future of Pakistan cricket in mind. The chairman, it is learnt, was not happy over the selection of tried and failed all-rounder Sohail Tanvir and the injury-prone paceman Umar Gul in the T20 series against Bangladesh.
Moreover, it is also learnt that former captain Shoaib Malik could be included in the ODI team against Zimbabwe or Sri Lanka. Though Shoaib is a seasoned campaigner, he had failed to impress anyone despite performing inconsistently in domestic matches.
But a certain lobby in the board is now trying to convince Shaharyar to recall Shoaib despite him not scoring a 50 in the last 11 One-day Internationals.
Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2015
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