Why Mickey Arthur dropped Wahab Riaz ?

Wahab Riaz

As a cricket enthusiast and keen follower of the cricket I found Mickey Arthur’s decision of dropping Wahab Riaz from Pakistan is a gift to the nation.

Wahab Riaz just a couple of months away from celebrating his 33rd birthday has been in Pakistan side since making his test debut in 2010 against England at the Oval at the age of 25. Wahab Riaz announced himself on the test scene with a five wicket haul on debut but to repeat this feat in test cricket Wahab took another six years and 33 innings when he took 5 wickets in an innings against West Indies at Sharjah in October, 2016. This is till date his only notable performance in test cricket.



Wahab played most of his cricket on the back of his hostile attitude and his spell against Shane Watson during 2015 world cup when he was charged up against Australian all rounder in response to the verbal attrition between Wahab Riaz and Mitchell Starc during the Pakistan’s inning when Wahab came to bat.

Had Wahab not bowled that spell against Shane Watson he might be kicked out of the Pakistan side bit earlier as his performance during 2015 season was not up to the mark. Wahab took 20 wickets in 7 test matches at an average of over 36 runs per wicket. And followed it up in 2016 with 29 wickets in 8 test matches with an average of 34 runs per wicket.


Wahab is a bowler who bowls well when in rhythm and when out of song he can be all over the place. Wahab carrying the issue of bowling no balls since early part of his career and he hasn’t able to cope this issue despite gaining experience over the years and working with several coaches at national and international level.

It seems Mickey Arthur loses his patience with Wahab Riaz in that test match against Srilanka when Wahab aborted his run up not less than 5 times in an over and expression of anger was visible on Mickey Arthur’s face at that that time.


With so many downs in Wahab’s career it is the high time to build on youngsters. We have seen Mohammad Abbas coming good in that last series against West Indies and Hassan Ali also showed his potential during the last year or so in limited over’s cricket Mickey Arthur looking at the youth of Pakistan to built up a pace repertoire for upcoming tours.

About Ehsan Muhammad Khan

A cricket enthusiast who is keenly following cricket since years and now transforming his passion for the game by analyzing events taking place on the cricket field.

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