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Islamabad : Pakistan former captain Rashid Latif has called the squad picked for the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025 as “a political selection” and played the national selection committee for making a few surprise decisions.
In the squad announced on Friday, all-rounder Faheem Ashraf staged a comeback after two years on the sidelines. He was surprisingly included at the last minute with his picture meeting former prime minister Nawaz Sharif – although it is an old picture - highlighted as the route to his comeback.
“It seems a political selection,” alleged the outspoken Latif while speaking to Telecomeasia.net. “Faheem has no recent performance to warrant a selection and nor is his record impressive.”
Once a prime candidate for the white-ball team, Ashraf’s performance went down and his ODI record shows it. In 34 ODIs he has 26 wickets at an average of 46.30 and in 24 innings he batted his average is 10.66 with a highest of 28.
Sources told Telecomasia.net that Aamer Jamal was the favourite to get the nod but was dropped at the last minute in favour of Ashraf. Amongst the other surprises is the return of allrounder Khushdil Shah and wicketkeeper batter Usman Khan, who has yet to play a one-day international.
Latif said Pakistan tried several new players on their successful tours of Australia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa but they were not retained by the selectors. “The squad has several players like Ashraf, Fakhar, and Saud Shakeel who were not part of the system on the last three tours and it’s now up to the captain Mohammad Rizwan to select the best 11 which Imran Khan did in 1992 triumph and Younis Khan in 2009,” said Latif.
Latif hoped the gamble of using Babar Azam as an opener would pay off. I think Babar will be useful as an opener but the main issue is who will take wickets in the overs 11-20 and then 31-40 which has been Pakistan’s weakness in recent ODIs as we suffered badly in the 2023 World Cup in that area. — (IANS)
