KARACHI: Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq and head coach Waqar Younis wanted the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to sideline Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal from the national team for at least a year to force them to improve their attitudes.

According to a report carried by a private news channel, Misbah and Waqar in their tour reports after the World Cup stated that Shehzad and Umar refused to change their attitude and approach to cricket.

The report said the captain and coach had noted in their reports that despite being told many times to play responsibly and change their attitude for the team, Shehzad and Umar continued to show reckless attitude in their approach to the game thus letting down the team time and again.

Incidentally, both the players along with opener, Nasir Jamshed were on Friday dropped for the Test and one-day series in Bangladesh by the new selection committee with only Shehzad being retained for the lone T20 match.

“The PCB had decided to go with the suggestions of Misbah and Waqar and drop the two for all three formats but the national T20 captain, Shahid Afridi insisted on having Shehzad in his team,” the report said.

The training camp for the Pakistan team begins from Monday in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2015

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