Thaindian News

Karachi, Dec.4 (ANI): Former Pakistan opener Aamir Sohail has blamed the faulty selection procedure for the team’s poor show in the on-going Test series against New Zealand.

Furious over the batting performance in the second Test, particularly after getting a steady start, Sohail said the problem lies in the way the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) selects the players.

“The problem starts from the way we select and discard our players. Actually our entire system is flawed which is why I won’t entirely blame our batsmen,” The News quoted Sohail, who formed a formidable opening pair with left-handed Saeed Anwar in 1990’s, as saying.

“Take the example of Imran Farhat. He made his debut and was soon dropped before earning a recall in 2003. He scored plenty of runs after that but was then discarded again without any reason. What I mean to say is that such inconsistency can never produce reliable batsmen,” he added.

Pakistan were cruising on 60 for no loss in their first innings of the second Test match, before yet another middle-order collapse saw them ending the day the day on 161-6 .

He came down hard on the selectors for persisting with Shoaib Malik despite him having no real technique for the longer version of the game.

“Any expert would tell you that Shoaib Malik has no technique when exposed to testing conditions. But he is still there in the middle order,” Sohail said.

“They’ve turned Faisal Iqbal into a mere tourist. I mean why do you select a player when you don’t think he is capable to play,” he added.

Sohail, who scored 2823 runs from 47 Tests, stressed that the PCB must introduce more checks and balances in their coaching department, as most of the batsmen have faulty techniques.

“The Board pays millions every month to its dozens of coaches but almost all batsmen who are spotted for national duty have flawed techniques. That is a proof that your coaching system is delivering poor results,” he said. (ANI)