Asif: ‘Rizwan is finished, Salman Ali Agha is Pakistan management’s laadla’ - The Indian Express
Former Pakistan pace bowler Mohammad Asif has slammed Pakistan cricket team mainstays like Salman Ali Agha and Muhammad Rizwan calling the former as the management’s ‘laadla’ (darling) and saying that Rizwan is finished. He also said that there was some players in the Pakistan team who would not even get picked to play club cricket in Pakistan but play years for the national team.
When Asif was asked in a conversation for the Nakash Khan Show about Salman Ali Agha, who has held the captaincy role in limited overs cricket, the former pacer sarcastically said: “He is our best player. There’s usually a favorite or pampered player in the mix, right? No, you have to keep a laadla (favourite) around, but he really is one of our best players—he’s been holding our middle order together. In fact, I think he carries even more responsibility than Babar Azam, and he’s almost fulfilling it. He’s carrying the entire team right now; we don’t have a bigger player than him.
“And like him there are three or four other players who wouldn’t even make the cut for good club cricket teams in Pakistan, yet they’ve been playing consistently for the national team for the past two or three years.” Asif was speaking on day two of the Lord’s Test, three days before the PCB dropped seven players including Rizwan and Agha and sent them home. Reportedly, Rizwan is also being investigated by the Pakistan Cricket Board. The podcast episode was released after Pakistan were swept 3-0 by England in the three-Test series. But in the final Test, Pakistan showed some fight at last with debutant Razaullah making heads turn with a blistering innings of 81 runs off 63 balls.
“Do you not have any other youngster as a backup to bring in? You should have played him instead—maybe he would’ve done better. I mean, what great thing has Rizwan done anyway, given the way he’s been keeping? I think even in the last match, his wicketkeeping was so poor that he didn’t look like a proper keeper at all. In my opinion, his time is up, and you need to bring in a youngster. So what if a youngster underperforms for a series or two? Rizwan is doing the exact same thing right now—he’s stuck in a slump. Look, there are four or five players who just keep getting selected without contributing anything in Test cricket. Yeah, if you prepare a completely flat, dead pitch in Multan now, he’ll score a century there, buy himself some leeway, and lock in his spot for the next 12 Tests.”
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