On Friday, Pakistan has announced a 20-men Test squad against South Africa. There were as many as nine new faces in the squad selected by newly appointed chief selector Mohammad Waseem. It includes opener Imran Butt and Abdullah Shafique, middle-order batsmen Kamran Ghulam, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel, bowlers Nauman Ali, and Sajid Khan, Haris Rauf, and Tabish Khan.
Mohammad Waseem also showed used a data analysis on the selected players, showing the journalists while reasoning with them for why the players are picked. The data also included the stats from the recently concluded 2020-’21 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, where Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Central Punjab ended the final in a tie.
Inzamam ul-Haq unhappy with new Pakistan squad
From the squad that went to New Zealand, the exclusions were Zafar Gohar, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Haris Sohail, Sohail Khan, Shan Masood, and Imam ul-Haq.
Inzamam ul-Haq not happy with the selection of the squad
Former Pakistan chief selector Inzamam ul-Haq does not seem to be happy with selecting the squad announcement. He believes the side can beat South Africa in the upcoming Test series. However, he later criticized the chief selector Mohammad Waseem.
Speaking on his official Youtube channel, “Inzamam ul-Haq – The match winner”, Inzamam expressed his disappointment in the squad selection. Although he says that it was good to pick performers from the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, such as Tabish Khan, he believes some of the players were picked to make some people happy.
“I feel that the selection of the team to please some people. There is no vision in the selection,” he said.
He felt on the selection of Haris Rauf, who played only three first-class matches. Haris was one of the four fast bowlers to be picked for the side.
His nephew, Imam ul-Haq, was also dropped. Imam averages only 25.53 in 21 innings he has played so far. Imam was ruled out of the New Zealand tour with a thumb fracture and did not recover from the injury, making him unavailable from the South Africa home series.
Pakistan will play two Test and three T20I match series against South Africa starting from January 26.
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