Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan’s unjust cricket selectors Thursday recalled Kamran Akmal and Ahmad Shahzad, but not dashing opener Salman Butt, in a preliminary squad for this month’s tour of the West Indies. The 35-year-old Kamran has been reminding selectors of his scoring abilities for well over a year scoring 1,035 in the premier first class tournament and another 361 in the National One-day Cup in the 2016-17 season. Kamran, who played the last of his 154 one-day internationals in 2013 and his last Twenty20 in 2014, also finished as top run-getter with 353 runs in the Pakistan Super League, which finished on Sunday last. Opener Ahmad, who is also in the 31-man squad, was part of Pakistan’s squad for last year’s World Twenty20 held in India. Shahzad was dropped after former head coach Waqar Younis described him as an undisciplined player following the event in India. But Shahzad finished as top scorer in the National One-day Cup with 653 runs which earned him a recall.

It is very unfortunate that the selectors, headed by former Test captain Inzamamul Haq, are not considering opener Salman Butt. Salman is an answer to Pakistan’s opening woes. Since the lifting of his spot-fixing ban, Salman, along with Kamran and Shahzad, has given tremendous performance in the domestic circuit to show that he is not a shadow of his former self. The PCB’s unstinted support for pacer Mohammad Amir, while ignoring the others in the same incident, smacks of injustice, double standard, favouritism and hypocrisy. Isn’t it a blatant hypocrisy to support Amir and not Salman or Asif. It is a harsh reality that we talk about morality, ethics and values day-in and day-out but seldom follow them. The preliminary squad will train under head coach Mickey Arthur in a camp in Lahore from March 11-17 before leaving for the Caribbean three days later. Pakistan play the first Twenty20 international in Barbados on March 26. That will be followed by three one-day internationals and as many Tests.

Preliminary squad: Ahmad Shahzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Fakhar Zaman, Azhar Ali, Shan Masood, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Asif Zakir, Saad Ali, Sarfraz Ahmed, Kamran Akmal, Fahim Ashraf, Hussain Talat, Ammad Butt, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Rumman Raees, Sohail Khan, Junaid Khan, Sohail Tanveer, Mohammad Abbas, Usman Shinwari, Usama Mir, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Asghar, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Yasir Shah.