 Pakistan has become the first country to announce their 15-member squad for the
ICC World T20 to be played in West Indies late in April. They had only
recently announced their 30-member preliminary squad, and now, with not a lot
of cricket leading up to the start of that tournament announced the side. However,
rather funnily - or shockingly - they have not announced who the captain of the
side will be!
Pakistan had only recently seen a crisis, when they had banned some of their
players. Two of them, Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan, have been banned
for life, whereas the other two, Shoaib Malik and Naved-ul-Hasan Rana
have been banned for one year. All four of them have obviously been excluded
from the side to go for the ICC World T20.
However, the other players who were fined by the PCB, namely, Kamran Akmal,
Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi, have all been picked up in the 15 member squad.
Some of the other members in the squad who have made a surprising return are
the likes of Misbah-ul-Haq, Salman Butt and Mohammd Hafeez, apart from
seeing a 19-year old youngster in Hammad Azam feature in the side as well.
Talking to the media, the chief selector, Mohsin Khan, who has only recently
assumed office as the head of selection confirmed that he had been instructed
by the PCB to not select the aforementioned, banned cricketers, and had also
been told by the PCB chief Ejaz Butt to delay the naming of the captain. Khan
himself was not pleased with the decision to not name the skipper and he said
that he had requested the PCB chief to not allow this to happen again. He said
that captain and coach need to sit down with the selectors to be able to discuss
their choices and only then select the team and hence it was not an ideal way
of going about things.
About the captain, Mohsin Khan said that there were 3-4 guys in the
team, who could all be captain material. These include the likes of Shahid Afridi, Hafeez, Misbah, Butt and Razzaq, and it remained to be seen who
becomes the leader. There is a good chance that the selectors may not appoint
Afridi as the captain given that he is on probation for the next six months
and hence the remaining four will be the choices that the selectors have.
Mohsin said, "The only contenders are the senior players, they know these
players, they have played with them"
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