Pakistan opt to retain injured Wahab in playing eleven at Headingley

LEED, England: Pakistan have opted to field Wahab Riaz in the must-win World Cup game against Afghanistan here at Headingley on Wednesday despite the fact that the seasoned left-armer injured his non-bowling hand during training on Tuesday, a team official has confirmed.

Raza Kitchlew, the team’s media manager, told reporters on Wednesday that Wahab injured his hand while training during the pre-match training session. He stressed that the injury wasn’t a serious one.

“Wahab had an injury on his right hand. Two of his fingers got hit and now he has swelling on the side of his hand,” he said.

But despite the injury, Pakistan decided to keep Wahab in an unchanged playing eleven for the game against Afghanistan.

There are fears that Wahab has a hairline fracture on one of his fingers but Raza said that it wasn’t confirmed yet.

“Even if there is a hairline fracture it would be a very minor one. Wahab’s injury has been examined by experts and they have given him the go-ahead to play today’s game,” he said.

Pakistan have taken a risk by playing Wahab as his injury could aggravate and might make him unavailable for the more challenging game against Bangladesh at Lord’s on July 5.

But Raza said that there is still a week to go before that match and Pakistan expect that Wahab would be fully fit by then.

Though Wahab is a key cog in Pakistan’s pace arsenal, he is yet to deliver a match-winning performance apart from his three-wicket hauls against England (3-82) and South Africa (3-46). He has mostly played second fiddle to Mohammad Amir, one of the most successful bowlers at this World Cup so far.

Pakistan had the option of handing teenage pacer Mohammad Hasnain his World Cup debut but chose against it. Hasnain, who is the fastest bowler in the national team’s line-up, was drafted in the 15-man World Cup squad primarily on the basis of his impressive performances for Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League earlier this year.

The Pakistan team’s think-tank has been criticised time and again for selecting him in the squad when they had little trust in the youngster’s abilities.