Ramiz Raja criticizes Pakistan T20 selection after loss in the first T20I against Sri Lanka

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is doing its best to bring cricket back to Pakistan. Sri Lanka have gone to Pakistan for a limited-overs tour which includes three ODIs and three T20Is. After the first ODI was washed out, the hosts won the ODI series 2-0.

However, Pakistan did make a few changes to the T20I squad. 13 of the ODI players were retained while Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal were recalled to the shortest format. Imam-ul-Haq, Abid Ali and Mohammad Rizwan were left out of the T20I team. They went into the series as favorites as they are the No. 1 ranked side in the ICC rankings. In 2018, they lost just one T20I throughout the year.

However, 2019 hasn’t been too great for them. They lost a couple of games against South Africa. They lost a game to England as well. Here, they’ve started the series against Sri Lanka with a loss. After being put in to bat, the visitors put on 165 in their 20 overs. But Pakistan were never in the chase as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. They were eventually bowled out for 101 with more than two overs to spare.

Hence, Sri Lanka did pull off an upset as they went to Pakistan with a second-string side and nobody expected them to beat the hosts. Pakistan’s batting couldn’t stand up. In fact, only three batsmen (Babar Azam, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Iftikhar Ahmed) could make it to double figures. The come-back men Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal failed miserably. The latter was out for a first-ball duck while Shehzad’s stay at the crease was painful as he scored just four off nine deliveries.

Hence, former Pakistan cricketer and current commentator Ramiz Raja heavily criticized the team selection and said that the T20 season had to start on a bad note under the new team management because of the team selection. He termed the comeback men as ‘recycled known mishits’.

He questioned as to why fix something that is not broken. Everything seemed to be working fine for the Pakistan T20 side. He tweeted, “Pakistan T20 season has begun on a sour note under new team management. It had to. If you select recycled known mishits what else do you expect. Absolutely horrendous selection. I ask: Why fix it if it’s not broken.”