Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Rameez Raja has defended the staff choice for the T20 World Cup, saying the choice committee has very restricted choices and “Lionel Messi is not sitting on the bench”.
Responding to criticism of staff choice after the staff’s constant failure of the center order, Raja stated in an interview to Geo TV, “We have experimented with senior players in the last T20 World Cup. I have no problem. But my principle in cricket is – we need consistency in selection and second we need to strengthen the captain. Humare bench main koi Lionel Messi nahi baitha huya hain, aur humne ekdum koi raddi player ko le liya ho (We don’t have Lionel Messi sitting on the bench and have instead picked a useless player in the team). We have limited options.”
Pakistan’s center order has been a serious concern for the staff administration as no different batsman within the center order may rating huge runs. From the Asia Cup loss to a 4-3 loss within the 7-T20I match sequence towards England, solely the opening pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan took the accountability of scoring runs. Pakistan’s ‘poor choice’ is beneath assault as a result of failure of the center order. Many veteran cricketers felt that Shoaib Malik or maybe Mohammad Hafeez ought to have been within the center order to strengthen the batting in addition to the bowling, however neither of them was thought of for the T20 World Cup.
However, Raja is hopeful of the staff’s higher efficiency as he additional added, “We need not press the panic button. I consider Pakistan can win the World Cup. Shaheen Afridi is match. Fakhar Zaman can also be getting match follow achieved. Hopefully issues will enhance later within the match (T20 World Cup).
Pakistan will start their 2022 T20 World Cup marketing campaign towards India on the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 23 October.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
