Among the 10 teams participating in the ICC World Cup 2023, Pakistan is the only team that has not announced a 15-member national squad so far.
Regarding this, board sources claim that Chairman PCB Management Committee Chaudhry Zaka Ashraf wants the performance of Asia Cup 2023 to be evaluated first and the squad should be selected keeping the shortcomings in front.
In this regard, a review committee meeting was held at the PCB headquarters in Lahore yesterday, which was chaired by Zaka Ashraf himself.
Captain Babar Azam, PCB technical committee members, director of cricket Mickey Arthur, coach Bradburn and national team fast bowling coach Morne Morkel were part of the meeting via video link.
However, surprisingly, Chief Selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, who had selected the squad for the Asia Cup and now is also responsible for selecting the World Cup team, was absent from the meeting.
In the meeting, the technical committee and Zaka Ashraf appeared to be particularly concerned about the situation that 53-year-old Inzamam-ul-Haq, who was earning millions of rupees per month, suddenly did not join such an important meeting without any reason, which is regrettable.
However, on the other hand, the responses of captain Babar Azam and director of cricket Mickey Arthur who attended the review committee meeting have also become a cause of more concern after the Asia Cup defeat and before the World Cup.
The captain and director of cricket also openly admitted to his own poor planning, blaming the Asia Cup fiasco on the event’s busy schedule and weather.
Captain Babar Azam had no clear answer for not giving chance to Saud Shakeel, Abdullah Shafiq and other players in the early matches of the tournament.
At first he replied that it was a mistake not to do so. On fielding a full team instead of new players against Nepal, his response was that the players were not rested because we get to play late matches.
Director of Cricket Mickey Arthur admitted that the national team is facing several problems ahead of the ICC World Cup, with the fitness of key players and the middle order definitely being an issue, but he did not have any solution to these problems. .
Mickey Arthur says that in the World Cup, the team will enter the field with the same plan that was part of the Asia Cup plan.
Skipper Babar Azam ruled out the possibility of a change in leadership and insisted on retaining vice-captain Shadab Khan in the post despite his poor performance.
He said that the same team has won before, the defeat in the Asia Cup was due to bad play and strategy, but everything will be fine.
Babar Azam emphasized that fast bowler Wasim Jr and additional wicketkeeper Mohammad Haris did not live up to expectations in the Asia Cup but he wants to take them with him in the World Cup.
Surprisingly, the fast bowling coach of the national team, Morne Morkel, gave a solution to fix the poor bowling of the leg-break giggly bowler Shadab Khan by keeping a spin bowling coach in the team, while the national team coach Bradburn during the meeting, the director Cricket Mickey continued to say yes to Arthur.
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