Yasir Shah faces fitness issues ahead of Sri Lanka Test series

Pakistan Cricket team started their training camp ahead of the upcoming Test series in UAE against Sri Lanka which gets underway on September 28. Pakistan team will be part of the 5-day camp that started on Tuesday at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore which ends on September 23. The team management is currently concerned about the fitness of Yasir Shah and Azhar Ali who are the important members of the Test team.

Pakistan under their new head coach Mickey Arthur have shown a lot of significance towards the fitness of the players. The management has taken some tough decisions in this regards as they sent back Umar Akmal from England early this year after the batsman failed to prove his fitness.

Shah’s fitness has come under the scanner ever since he failed in the Yo-Yo endurance fitness Test while Azhar Ali is currently suffering from a calf injury. After the retirements of Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, the burden of batting will be high on Azhar with the Pakistan team in their rebuilding phase. But Azhar Ali’s unavailability means the middle-order batsman Asad Shafiq will be under pressure to take the responsibilities as he is currently going through a bad patch.

Yasir Shah is considered to be the Pakistan’s star spinner but with the 18-year-old Shadab Khan’s emergence into the limelight through the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and his fitness issues could make him handing his spot to the young leg-spinner. According to reports by Geo TV, the trainer and coach at the camp are unhappy with Yasir’s fitness which could result in the ouster of the 31-year-old from the team.

Pakistan will play Sri Lanka in a 2-match Test series starting September 28 played at Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively. A 5-match ODI series and 3-match T20I will be followed by the Test series with the last T20I game to be hosted by Lahore.

Pakistan Squad:

Azhar Ali, Shan Masood, Sami Aslam, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Sarfraz Ahmed, Usman Salahuddin, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Asghar, Mohammad Abbas, Bilal Asif, Mir Hamza and Wahab Riaz.