Afghanistan opener Hazratullah Zazai’s ICC T20 World Cup 2022 campaign came to a premature end following an injury he picked up. Gulbadin Naib, who played his last T20I in November 2021, got named as the replacement by the selectors.
Former Afghanistan captain Asghar Afghan was baffled with the squad’s inconsistent and ‘unbalanced’ combinations in recent tournaments and added how these tactics are denting the team's chances.
“Zazai has been a T20 player, he always makes it to the squad, but I didn’t know the extent of the injury that the management decided to not play him. Whenever you go to Australian conditions, the team needs to have a fast-bowling all-rounder. Unfortunately, Gulbadin is an experienced player but was in the sidelines and then was kept in the reserves and now he’s been promoted to the side. The selectors are making a lot of changes and they should have understood prior as to where they are heading towards,” said Asghar while speaking on 'BatBricks7 presents Run Ki Runneeti' on CricTracker.
“We had one combination for the Ireland series, a different one for the Asia Cup and then 5-6 players were replaced for this World Cup. So, when you make too many changes, there is no balanced combination to go with. This is wrong in cricket. Gulbadin is an experienced player and one that the team needs now, he comes a solid batter in the middle order. The decision to replace Zazai with Gulbadin is a good decision,” added the former skipper.
Not sure why Naveen-ul-Haq isn’t playing: Asghar Afghan
In the same discussion, Former India international Deep Dasgupta was also present who questioned the absence of pacer Naveen-ul-Haq in the side.
“Naveen has played a lot of T20 cricket, don’t know what the issue is with him if it’s regarding his fitness. Fareed Malik has had good performances, he’s got terrific swing but Naveen’s experience adds a lot. Not exactly sure why he is not playing. Because if you see the last World Cup, he had a fantastic outing but that extends to the other places as well, he has always given terrific performances. In England, he was the best bowler and I think Afghanistan will be missing Naveen-ul-Haq,” responded Asghar to Deep Dasgupta.
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