Ramiz Raja questions Pakistan's squad for England and Ireland

Pakistan will tour Ireland and England for a Test series which begin with a one-off Test against the recently crowned full-members from May 11 followed by a couple of matches against Joe Root’s men. As many as five members who have been included, are yet to make their debut in Test series. The squad has a blend of youth and experience.

However, the composition of the squad hasn’t gone down well with Ramiz Raja and he raised some stern questions surrounding the selections. Yasir Shah suffered a hip injury owing to which he has been ruled out of the tour. Subsequently, Shadab Khan has been drafted in. Meanwhile, Raja believes that Wahab Riaz would have been the most appropriate choice as the replacement.

“Who will take the wickets?”- Ramiz Raja

“I ask why Riaz is not picked, as he was among the most impressive bowlers in the Pakistan Super League, bowling over 150kph and reversing the ball. So if there is no Yasir Shah at the disposal, who will take the wickets? I believe the next best choice for Pakistan was Riaz, which they missed out on,” Raja was quoted as saying during an interaction with the fans on the social media.

Pakistan cricket, headed by chief-selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, has also opted for Fakhar Zaman, who has been excellent for them in the limited-overs formats. However, as per Raja, he doesn’t possess the technique to survive in seaming conditions. Moreover, he said that Zaman should first be trained in Asian wickets before being considered for tougher conditions.

“Meanwhile, trying out Zaman as an opener in English conditions is a bad idea, because Zaman’s batting is weak under the seam-friendly conditions offered in England, if we want to introduce Zaman as an opener he should be used in the local Asian conditions first,”  he added.

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