After suffering a whitewash against the second string Sri Lankan side recently, the Pakistan team management is leaving no stone unturned in bringing the team back on track.
The first big decision that they have made is to sack Sarfaraz Ahmed from captaincy in all formats and give the leadership roles to Azhar Ali and Babar Azam in test cricket and T20Is respectively.
Another major concern for Pakistan is the opening slot. Fakhar Zaman is the team’s first choice opener in white ball cricket, but he has been largely inconsistent in the recent times. The test openers have not delivered as per the expectations either.
Salman Butt might represent Pakistan again
The Pakistan chief selector cum head coach Misbah-ul-Haq is open to trying all the options available at his disposal. He has revealed that even Salman Butt, who was banned from international cricket for 5 years for his role in spot-fixing, can be given a chance to open the innings for Pakistan if the rest of the openers fail.
Currently, the openers who are there in the Pakistan set-up are Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abid Ali and Shan Masood. While, Imam is in the Pakistan squad for all formats of the game, Fakhar is in the ODI and T20I squad, Abid is in the ODI and test squad and Shan is only in the test squad.
Butt scoring heavily in domestic cricket
Salman Butt recently scored a double hundred against Balochistan in the Quaid-E-Azam trophy which is the first class tournament in Pakistan. But, because of the spot-fixing scandal, many people don’t want him back into the Pakistan squad.
However, with Misbah giving Butt a green signal now, he can hope for a comeback if he continues to be consistent in domestic cricket.
“Shan Masood has performed well recently, Imam has done well in domestic [cricket] recently and Abid also made 250. So, those players who are performing in domestic cricket and also have performances at the international level are being preferred. Salman Butt is also there, once one of these players goes out of contention, he can be considered.” Misbah was quoted saying by PakPassion.
