Shahid Afridi unhappy with decision to rest top players for ODI series against Australia

Pakistan will be playing Australia in a series of five ODI matches in the UAE, which will be their penultimate international assignment before they play the World Cup. The series will begin on March 22 with the first two matches taking place in the Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah. The third match will be played in Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi and the last two matches will happen in Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani selectors have decided to rest six players for the Australia series in the squad announced by them on March 8. The six players include captain, Sarfaraz Ahmed, as the team will be led by experienced Shoaib Malik, in his absence. Other players to be rested are Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Hasan Ali, Shadab Khan, and Shaheen Shah Afridi.

Shahid Afridi criticizes selectors for leaving out Sarfaraz Ahmed

Former Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi was furious with the Pakistani selectors’ decision of resting Sarfaraz Ahmed and other players for this key series to be played at ‘home’. He said, “Look if we had been playing against a weak side than it made sense to try new players but this is a series against a big team and I don’t think it was right time to rest players, after all, it is not as if they have been playing for some 10 or 15 years.”

He mentioned that if these players had done well against such a good team in home conditions, their confidence must have been boosted before the all-important World Cup 2019 in England and Wales. Afridi was also surprised by the selectors deciding to blood in rookie Mohammad Hasnain, who has played just two First-Class games and is currently part of Pakistan’s T20 league.

“I don’t know but we must first give chances to the established bowlers like Junaid Khan, Wahab Riaz etc. First, look and give proper chance to the established players because after all, we are playing in the World Cup,” Afridi was quoted as saying in Sportstar.

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