World Cup 2019: Mohammad Amir recovers from chicken pox; available for tournament opener vs West Indies

The ICC World Cup 2019 is going to begin in 10 days and Pakistan released their final 15-man squad for the tournament on May 20, 2019. They’ve included fast bowler Mohammad Amir in the squad after keeping him on the sidelines initially. It was just yesterday that they were smashed 4-0 in the 5-match ODI series by home team England, as their bowling seemed toothless even while defending totals of over 340 in consecutive ODI matches.

Shaheen Shah Afridi gave 80 plus runs in three consecutive matches in the series, which is a new record for Pakistan in ODI cricket despite also being the second most successful of the lot in terms of wickets. This forced the team management and selectors to reconsider their decision of leaving Amir out of the World cup squad. The final 15 has both Amir and Wahab Riaz to partner the young guns in Afridi and Hasnain.

Amir was earlier dropped from the Pakistani team due to loss of form and recently was also struck down with a bout of chicken pox, but as per the latest update, he has recovered from the illness.

Amir available for warmup games and Pakistan’s tournament opener on May 31

Abid Ali, Junaid Khan, and Faheem Ashraf, who were named in the primary squad have made way for Asif Ali, Wahab Riaz and Amir. “As far as Amir is concerned, we never discarded him. We now want to take a bowler who brings a bit of experience and the previous knowledge of having bowled in English conditions,” chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq said at the press conference.

Amir has fully recovered from chicken pox and the team management is expecting him to join the rest of the squad in Bristol on May 22. Thus he will be available for selection in the two warm-up matches to be played on May 24 and 26. Pakistan will launch their World Cup campaign against the Windies on 31 May at Trent Bridge.

The left-arm pacer has to date played 51 ODI matches and picked 60 wickets for the Men in Green with the best bowling figures of 4/28 and was included in the first ODI against England, which was rained out.

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