The ‘old Ajmal’ is back, claims Saeed Ajmal

Despite rumours of the Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal’s retirement plans, he himself has still not given up the hope of being selected in the national team as he has been able to come up with some match winning performances in the ongoing National T20 Cup.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Ajmal revealed that no one from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has approached him regarding the farewell match and he believes that he still is fit enough to play for at least 2 years.

“No one has contacted me from the PCB as of now regarding my retirement plan,” Ajmal, who is in London for a charity game said. “I am fit and ready to play, as I have shown everyone in the recently concluded National T20 Cup that the ‘old Ajmal’ is back.”

The 38-year old believes that he can still contribute to the team’s success in the shorter formats of the game and that is what he is focussing on. “I believe I can contribute to the Pakistan team in the shorter formats for at least one or two years,” he said. “That’s where my real focus is.”

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The Faisalabad-born cricketer, who has been phenomenal across all the 3 formats feels that it’s time for him to hang his boots from the longest version of the game. “As far as Test cricket is concerned, I believe our team has some really good spinners,” he added. “So all I want to do is play for one last time and then focus on limited overs cricket,” he signed-off.

Ajmal has thus far represented Pakistan in 35 Test matches, 113 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 64 T20 Internationals (T20Is), where he bagged 178, 184 and 85 wickets respectively.