ISLAMABAD: The cricket fans were left to wait till the last day of the given deadline to know as to which fifteen players will be heading to start the T20 World Cup campaign with the opening match against the US at Dallas on June 6.
Almost all the World Cup competing teams have announced the final 15 for the mega event barring Pakistan which still have some brainstorming to do who fits in and who does not. Usually such approach reveals the element of uncertainty among the ranks and files, creating an impression that some doubts are there to wait till the last day to check the fitness of a few players who have been struggling to take the field.
Haris Rauf is one candidate that has seen the competitive cricketing field for months now. His form and fitness has been the key issue. Team management in Birmingham was busy making arrangements for May 24 final fifteen’s announcement. Though the selectors have confirmed that Haris has regained hundred percent fitness, it is only during the match that one could actually judge a cricketer’s fitness especially if he is a speedster.
Reports reaching from Birmingham (UK) where the touring squad has arrived for May 26 second T20 following a washout at Leeds, suggest that debates were still going on for the selection of Agha Salman, Usman Khan and Abbas Afridi.
With no specialist spinner there to accompany Abrar Ahmed in the team and the one who was rated as a potential candidate (Shadab Khan) as the other option is not delivering to the team’s cause, things are a bit weaker for Pakistan in spin department.
Majority of the selectors still favour making Agha Salman as the part of the fifteen-member squad ahead of Abbas Afridi considering the nature of pitches to be found in West Indies and the US. There is also a suggestion that Usman Khan should be dropped to accommodate both in the fifteen-member squad. The last minute debate surrounds picking the two from a set of three.
The US is totally a new venue for international cricket but league cricket and local cricket over the years reveal that spinners have an important role to play on wickets which possibly would be more suited to bowlers with hard hitters likely to struggle most of the time.
The uncertainty hovers over the nature of pitches also had something to do with the delay in team announcement. The recent T20 International at Texas where new entrants USA stunned Bangladesh also came under discussion. Scoring of genuine spinners was never easier in that particular match where the US stunned Bangladesh in almost the same environments where hosts will be pitted against Pakistan in their opening World Cup match on May 6.
Likely team: Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Rizwan, Saim Ayub, Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Shadab Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf and Salman Ali Agha/Abbas Afridi/Usman Khan (two of the last three).