Inzamam-ul-Haq unhappy with exclusion of Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz from Bangladesh T20I series

Pakistan have made several changes to their T20I squad for the upcoming series against Bangladesh at home starting January 24. This will be the second successive T20I series that the Men in Green will play on their home turf after the one against Sri Lanka last year. However, not all are happy over the squad that the hosts have chosen to take on the Asian opponents.

Former Pakistan captain and chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, for instance, has expressed his dissatisfaction over the fact that the home team ignored senior bowlers Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz for the three-match series. The 49-year-old Inzamam, who played one T20I in his cricketing career despite making international debut in 1991, said the left-arm bowling duo should not have been dropped since they have a sea of experience.

‘The shorter the format, they bowl better’: Inzamam-ul-Haq

“Wahab and Amir should not be dropped because the duo is experienced and shorter the format, the better they are at bowling,” he said on his YouTube channel. Amir and Riaz, whose combined age is 61, has taken 59 and 30 wickets in the shortest format, respectively. Inzamam was all the more worried as the experienced pair was overlooked in the run-up to the T20 World Cup in Australia in October-November.

“If both are excluded because of Test cricket, this is not the right way to deal with this matter because both of them are seniors and selectors should take advantage of them as the T20 World Cup is near,” Inzamam added. He was not happy with the several changes that were made in the T20I squad and felt the team led by Babar Azam should comprise both senior and junior players.

“I was unclear on what to say regarding the T20I team but now I believe that there should be a mixture of senior and young players and making seven to eight changes collectively will affect the performance of the side,” Inzamam said.

It may be mentioned here that Inzamam was instrumental in bringing both Amir and Riaz to Pakistan’s World Cup squad in England last year at the dying moments. Amir was completely out of his rhythm while Riaz was out of the national set-up for some time. Yet, the former captain brought them in keeping in mind their experience.

Here’s the video: