Wahab Riaz hints at Mohammad Amir's potential return to international cricket

Veteran Pakistan pacer Wahab Riaz has predicted that retired speedster Mohammad Amir might return to international cricket again. Amir retired from international cricket (T20Is and ODIs) two years ago but has been featuring consistently in franchise cricket since then. Amir had already announced his retirement from Test cricket on July 26, 2019.

Amir, the 30-year-old left-arm pacer, shocked the cricketing world in December 2020 with a sudden retirement from international cricket at the age of 28. He blamed the management for poor treatment and mentioned it as the reason behind his decision. But Wahab feels that Amir is likely to make a comeback to international cricket and also added that he can be Pakistan's third-choice pacer alongside Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf.

“We may see Mohammad Amir coming back to play for Pakistan once again. We have Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf but the other three spots are still available. Bowlers like Hasan Ali, Shahnawaz Dahani, Naseem Shah, and Muhammad Wasim are fighting for it. Amir may come back, too,” Riaz said in an interview with Samaa TV on Tuesday.  

Najam Sethi and Shahid Afridi invested in me a lot: Mohammad Amir

Wahab's comments came after a big change in Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) management this month. Pakistani government dismissed the Ramiz Raja-led management and instated a 14-member committee under former chairman Najam Sethi at the helm last week.

Sethi's first big decision came last week with the appointment of former captain Shahid Afridi as interim Chief Selector. While announcing his retirement in 2020, Amir had spoken highly about Najam Sethi and Shahid Afridi and had thanked the duo for investing in him heavily. 

"I've been tortured by being told the PCB invested a lot in me. I'll just say two people invested in me a lot: [former PCB chairman] Najam Sethi and [former Pakistan captain] Shahid Afridi. They were the only two. The rest of the team was saying, 'we don't want to play with Amir'," Amir said while announcing his retirement from international cricket in December 2020.