Former captains Zaheer Abbas and Moin Khan said that the national selectors should stick with young players in the team instead of recalling senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.
Published: Apr 30, 2012, 08:19 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 30, 2012, 08:19 PM (IST)
Moin Khan also felt that Mohammad Yousuf should first play domestic cricket © AFP
Lahore: Apr 30, 2012
Former captains Zaheer Abbas and Moin Khan said that the national selectors should stick with young players in the team instead of recalling senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.
“Sri Lanka tour has many matches and it must be used to groom new faces and younger players. I am sure coach Dav Whatmore with all his experience will do a good job with them,” Zaheer said.
Zaheer also said that Yousuf should not expect direct selection into the national team without proving his match fitness in domestic cricket.
“He has not played domestic cricket for a while so he needs to play domestic first class matches to prove his match fitness,” Zaheer said.
Moin also felt that Yousuf should first play domestic cricket before hoping to get selected in the national team.
“Yousuf is a great batsman. If he is match fit fine, he can be considered for selection. But first he must be asked to play domestic cricket because selecting a player directly is injustice to those who perform well in domestic cricket,” he said.
Zaheer said it was time for Pakistan to start grooming and giving more exposure to new and younger players.
“We need to find and groom players who can serve the national team in any format for the next 10 years. Sri Lanka tour is perfect for this purpose. Whatmore is an experienced coach and he and selectors must take bold decisions,” he said.
Moin also advised captain Misbah-ul-Haq to stop playing Twenty20 cricket and focus on Test and one-day cricket.
“I think Misbah must take this decision himself. He needs to move away from T20 cricket and give way to a younger player and captain,” he said.
Moin backed giving the Twenty20 captaincy to Shahid Afridi and said if he was not willing to lead the side then Shoaib Malik should be given the job.
“It is time we started looking ahead to the future and plan well in advance,” he said. (PTI)
