Shahid Afridi keen on forming two national teams to improve bench strength

The interim chief selector of the Pakistan men's national team Shahid Afridi has said that his vision is to create enough options for Pakistan so that they get into a strong position to even field two teams if the situation demands. Afridi was appointed as the interim chair of the men’s national selection committee by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) last week.

Afridi’s remarks have come after Pakistan’s bowling department was badly exposed during the last month’s home Test series against England in the absence of frontline pacers Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah who were ruled out due to injuries.

I feel like there was a lack of communication in the past: Shahid Afridi

“I want to create two teams for Pakistan before my tenure ends in order to improve bench strength,” Shahid Afridi told media as quoted by the Hindustan Times.

Apart from that, the former Pakistan skipper went on to add that there has been a lot of communication barrier between the selection committee and the players in the past which he only came to know about after directly speaking to players including the likes of Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, among others.

“I feel like there was a lack of communication in the past. I got to know about the issues of players by speaking to them individually. I directly spoke to Haris (Sohail) and Fakhar (Zaman). I believe there should be a direct line of communication between the players and the selection committee.”

At the same time, Afridi also backed skipper Babar Azam’s bold decision of declaring the innings and setting New Zealand a target of only 138 runs in the fourth innings of the recently-concluded Karachi Test match which ended in a stalemate.

“Babar Azam is the backbone of the Pakistan team and we will back him. His decision about declaration yesterday was a good one,” he added.

Pakistan will now be eyeing a series win when they face the Kiwis in the second and final Test match at the National Bank Cricket Arena in Karachi starting Monday, January 2.