Daily Times

Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram have slammed Pakistan’s decision to rest pace weapon and spiritual leader Shaheen Afridi from the final Test of the series with Australia at the SCG.

With victory in the three-match series now out of reach, Pakistan omitted Afridi at the toss on Wednesday, hoping to keep him fresh for their upcoming Twenty20 series with New Zealand.

Afridi will captain that five-match series, which begins on January 12.

The selection call has also allowed Pakistan to play specialist tweaker Sajid Khan on an SCG wicket that has traditionally favoured spin.

But the towering Afridi, 12th in the ICC’s Test bowling rankings, has provided valuable experience to a green Pakistani pace attack this series.

After a slow start to the series in Perth, Afridi masterminded an Australian collapse of 4-16 in the second innings of the Boxing Day Test as the tourists threatened to stage an almighty upset.

“(Resting Afridi) makes me laugh, to be honest,” former pace ace Younis told Channel 7.

“Because that’s what we play for, we play for Test match cricket. We don’t play for T20s or one-day cricket.

“If you’re missing Test match cricket purely because you are being rested, I do not understand.

“That’s a real shocker for me because … he looked good in the previous match.

“He started feeling like the old Shaheen Afridi and started to swing the ball, and the pace was getting better.”

The call comes despite captain Shan Masood declaring before the Perth Test that Pakistan hoped to use the series with Australia to prove Test cricket remained the playing group’s priority.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has favoured white-ball fixtures in recent times, scheduling only two-match Test series for teams other than Australia and England in the current four-year future tours program.

“(Resting) is solely his decision, nothing to do with management,” Akram, Pakistan’s greatest ever paceman, told Channel 7.

“Straight after this there are five T20s in New Zealand, he’s the captain. But T20 cricket, who cares?

“I understand, it’s there for entertainment and it’s there for financial gain for cricket boards, for players, but cricketers should know that Test cricket is the ultimate.

“If we talk about what happened 20 years ago in this Test in Sydney, nobody knows what happened last night in T20. That’s the difference.”