With many statements and media briefings this has become evident that Pakistan’s head coach Mickey Arthur is not a big fan of the view to provide chances to aging fast bowlers who are trying to win their place back in the national side or the ones who are trying to break into the national contention but there age is not on the right side. Examples of Sohail Khan & Tabish Khan are in front us who are constantly getting ignored despite of putting up a big effort in domestic cricket.
But the question arises that “Does PCB need to revisits this strategy of ignoring aging players??” What made me to raise this question can be understand from the small chart below:
What this chart show is an interesting fact. This is the list of the leading wicket takers in ongoing and Pakistan’s premier domestic tournament Quaid-e-Azam trophy which is the only platform available in Pakistan for players to show their talent and win a place in Pakistan test lineup.
Among the top 11 wicket takers 6 are aging fast bowlers who are on the other side of 30’s which includes
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- Sohail Khan who has shown his intent to win his place back.
- Aizaz Cheema former international who still playing good cricket but don’t have any intentions to make a com back.
- Tabish Khan a seasoned pro also closing to his 33rd
- Shehzad Azam also in his 32nd year of life but still going strong.
- Ill fated Mohammad Asif who is ringing so many bells since making his come back to competitive cricket after spot fixing scandal.
- And lastly Umaid Asif whose career was halted because of doping ban but he is also making every opportunity count since his comeback.
Remaining 5 bowlers from the top 11 bowlers are also on the verge of their thirty’s. PCB must need to look on this policy once again as all domestic top performers specially in fast bowling department are aging and PCB should look out to sort their available resources very quickly.
Likes of Sadaf Hussain, who is been consistent since last 3-4 years but still waiting for his chance and if couple of more years pass by than he will be history as PCB will not consider any one over 30 years of age.
