Pakistan Cricket: The National Senior Men’s Selection Committee has continued ignoring former captains Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi. He has been dropped from the T20 team for the upcoming tour of Bangladesh and West Indies. According to a report by Telecom Asia Sport, Pakistan’s selectors decided not to include senior players in consultation with White-Ball Head Coach Mike Hessen and Captain Salman Aga.

Are the doors closed?

The decision to exclude these three seems to be based on white-ball tours and their recent performance in the ICC Champions Trophy. Rizwan led by Rizwan, Pakistan faced defeat in South Africa 2–0 in the T20 series, in which Babur also took part. After that both of them were dropped from the tour of New Zealand and the domestic series against Bangladesh. A senior official of the Pakistan Cricket Board said, “The management and selection committee of Pakistan wants to move beyond Babur and Rizwan, while both Hessen and Salman have said that the door has not been closed for both former openers, whose strike rate and batting form in T20 have been part of Pakistan’s problems in the recent defeat.”

Team will go on tour to Bangladesh and West Indies

Please tell that in the selection committee, former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed and former fast bowler Sikandar Bakht are observers. He has ensured that none of these troubled players will be in the teams for the three -match T20 series in Bangladesh and West Indies. The report quoted another source as saying. Pakistan will play from Bangladesh on 20, 22 and 24 July and then play five T20s against the West Indies in Florida. It has also been claimed that Hessen wanted Babur and Rizwan in the team for the Bangladesh series, but former star Aqib Javed refused to include them saying that some youths should be tried in a relatively easy home series.

The report said that Hessen met the three stars – Babur, Shaheen and Rizwan during the preparation sessions in Lahore and discussed their strategy for selection and informed them about their plans for the three players. Sources also said that captain Salman Aga was against joining Shaheen in the team as he wants to continue his plan to try the youth and prepare a good backup. Pakistan also has to play T20 series with Afghanistan, Ireland, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Australia, so that its team can get a chance to make strong preparations for the World Cup to be hosted by India and Sri Lanka next year.