Pakistan speedster Umar Gul confident of making international comeback

Umar Gul, the right-arm Pakistan pacer, hasn’t played international cricket for over a couple of years. He last donned the national colours in an ODI  against England in Cardiff back in September 2016. However, he has been a consistent performer in domestic cricket. The speedster is currently playing for Habib Bank Limited in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy and has picked up 20 wickets in six matches.

Despite his impressive performance, he has recently been sidelined from the ODI and the T20I squads for the tour of New Zealand, which gets underway today with a T20I at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Quite expectantly, the 34-year-old expressed disappointment but sounded confident on his return for the three-match Test series, which starts on November 16 in Abu Dhabi.

PCB and selectors should sit and decide about their options

“Obviously, it hurts. I am doing my best in domestic cricket and was quite hopeful about my comeback. But anyhow, it depends how the selectors think. I am sure they are watching my performances in the domestic circuit and I am quite hopeful of making comeback in Test squad against New Zealand,” Gul was quoted as saying in The Nation.

The 2019 World Cup in England and Wales is scheduled to start on May 30 and Pakistan will play their first match on the very next day against Windies at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. The North-Western Frontier Province-born bowler also iterated the negatives of making too many changes ahead of the event, which may hamper the team combination to a large extent.

“Now World Cup is not far and I feel it is right time when the PCB and selectors should sit and decide about their options. I think if too much changes are made, it may hamper Pakistan team’s chances of doing well in the mega event. The time is high when the players should be shortlisted and right combination must be retained till the World Cup,” he added.

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