KARACHI: Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir has dismissed rumours about his retirement from Test cricket. Earlier in May, unsubstantiated media reports claimed that Amir was considering drawing curtains on his Test career in order to prolong his white-ball career.

However, the left-armer has now put an end to any speculation about his Test future.

“I have no idea what the thinking was behind this ridiculous story,” cricket.com.au quoted Amir as saying.

“I’m fit, strong and healthy and have no intentions of quitting any format. What I had said was that as a cricketer you have to take care of your body and look after your fitness levels and someone altered that statement and quoted me as saying that I wanted to quit playing Test cricket.”

“It’s totally untrue and as long as I am fit I want to play in all formats,” Amir added.

Amir, along with fast bowler Mohammad Asif and former skipper Salman Butt, were found guilty of corruption in the Lord’s Test betw­een England and Pakistan in August 2010 by an independent anti-corruption tribunal in February 2011.

Since his return to international cricket last year, Amir has taken 43 wickets in 14 Tests during a mixed period for Pakistan’s Test side. The figures don’t suggest that Amir has had an impressive comeback.

But the left-armer says he’s showing signs of getting back to his absolute best.

“I was not under any false impressions that my comeback would be easy and that I would hit the ground running,” he said.

Amir said that during the ban, he didn’t even touch a cricket ball and still people were expecting him to make an instant impact on his return to international cricket.

“That was an impossible task and yet critics were writing me off straight after my comeback,” he said.

“It’s been about 18 months since my comeback and I think I am now showing the results of the hard work that I have put in. People need to be patient and I had to be patient, too, as these things take time,” Amir added.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2017