THE Pakistan cricket team for the tour to India has been announced and the selectors made the selection on merit.

The Pakistan team’s former captain Shahid Afridi has been dropped from the ODI squad.

Others are Abdul Razzaq, and Imran Nazir. Both players also failed to perform consistently.

Shahid Afridi has failed to perform in previous matches. In 16 ODIs played in 2012, he scored 182 runs (average 15.16) and took just 15 wickets (average 43.13).

This bowling statistics also include Afridi’s five wickets against Afghanistan in Sharjah.

In T20 International, Afridi scored just 118 runs in eight innings of nine Twenty20 Internationals of 2012. He also bagged eight wickets.

Pakistan’s chief selector Iqbal Qasim has very rightly said that dropping Afridi was a difficult decision; he is no doubt a great player and has the ability to win a game, but the decision has been taken in the interest of the team.

Iqbal Qasim also added that Afridi can win back his place in ODI team if he performs well.

Many selectors of Australia, England, South Africa have dropped great players to give them a break from international cricket.

This helped the team a lot in many ways as experienced players work hard in domestic cricket to earn their place back and the young players get a chance to perform at the international level.

Dropping players like Afridi is not an easy job in South Asia as we can see that the Indian selectors are reluctant about replacing Mahendra Singh Dhoni as captain.

Hats off to the selectors of the Pakistan cricket team for taking a good and wise decision.

MUBASHIR MAHMOOD Karachi