close
close

Yiamastaverna

Trusted News & Timely Insights

    • Aleem Dar, Aaqib Javed and Azhar Ali have been appointed to the Pakistan selection committee
    Frisco

    Aleem Dar, Aaqib Javed and Azhar Ali have been appointed to the Pakistan selection committee

    Bronwen Cerys Posted on

    The PCB has assembled its selection committee again, latest on the day of another home Test brawl, this time against England. Shortly after England secured an ultimately comfortable innings victory in Multan, the PCB announced Aleem Dar, Aaqib Javed and Azhar Ali as new members of the panel, along with Asad Shafiq, analyst Hassan Cheema and the captain and coach already on the panel committee.

    All seven members can vote on the selection. Additionally, there are four non-voting members in Azhar Mahmood (the assistant coach), Bilal Afzal (an advisor to the PCB chairman), Nadeem Khan (director – high performance) and Usman Wahla (director – international cricket).

    The new additions came ten days after Mohammad Yousuf resigned from the board. No chairman of the committee has been named, but this now means Pakistan has used 26 different selectors since August 2021.

    The appointments came within an hour of Pakistan’s innings-and-47-run defeat, making them the first team in Test history to lose a Test by an innings after scoring over 550 in the first attempt. It was Pakistan’s third consecutive home Test defeat and seventh in the last nine home Tests.

    The new committee’s immediate task will be to select a squad for the second Test, also in Multan, starting next Tuesday – the PCB had only announced a squad for the first Test. The members met at the PCB’s National Cricket Academy in Lahore on Friday afternoon and will travel to Multan on Saturday to meet the chief curator, captain Shan Masood and head coach Jason Gillespie. They will then finalize the squad for the second test in Multan from October 15th.
    Changes are likely to be made to the performances of four to five players under review. And despite scoring 100 in the first innings, Masood’s captaincy is likely to be a topic of discussion given his prolonged indifferent form, with a record of zero wins and six consecutive defeats. Pakistan have now slipped to the bottom of the WTC points table with just 16 points from eight games.

    Asked at the post-match presentation in Multan if Pakistan could see some new faces for the second Test, Masood said: “Look, we are in the middle of the series. We talked about a squad mentality. We have that.” We talked about consistency. I want the team to improve, no matter what the pitch is, we have to find a way out. And England showed us the way in this Test match, you have to give them a lot of credit.

    The selection panel had only been restructured earlier this year under PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi without a chief selection panel, but Wahab Riaz and Abdul Razzaq have since been sacked following Pakistan’s early exit from the T20 World Cup in June, with no replacements named. Yousuf’s resignation at the end of last month did not immediately result in a new appointment, leaving Shafiq as the only voting member alongside the captains and coaches.
    Dar’s appointment will certainly attract attention given how rare it is for referees to become selectors. Despite retiring from the ICC’s elite panel last year, he continued to referee domestically and at home international matches. However, he recently announced that this season would be his last as a professional referee.
    Tagged:

    LEAVE A RESPONSE

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Bronwen Cerys
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like

    ads