Wahab Riaz, Hasan Ali may follow Amir's footsteps: Shoaib Akhter
Collected
|| Desk Report ||
Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhter has expressed his concern about the future of Pakistan Cricket after the retirement of Mohammad Amir from the Test cricket at the age of just 27 years. Shoaib guessed that Wahab Riaz, Hasan Ali or others may also follow Amir's footsteps and take retirement from the Test cricket.
Shoaib believes the reason behind this apathy to Test cricket is the amplification of T20 cricket. He believes, pacers are more interested to play in the T20 matches rather than Test cricket.
“Amir quitting Test matches could be followed by the retirement of Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz and Juanid Khan. I don’t understand what is happening with the Pakistan team. How could Amir retire at the age of 27?” Shoaib said.
" Now, guys only want to play in the T20 matches. Playing in the ODI's is also a big thing too. Mohammad Amir, Junaid Khan, Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz- all of them just want to play in the shorter version of cricket," added Shoaib.
Amir's played just 36 Test matches in his career. But this short career was full of controversies. In 2010, Amir was banned for five years from international cricket because of spot-fixing. But after coming back from his ban, Amir became an integral part of the Pakistan side.
Amir did well in the World Cup too, picked up 17 wickets in eight matches. But he was not initially picked in the Pakistan squad but the poor performance of other bowlers helped Amir to make the cut. Shoaib believes, it was the time for Amir to repay the trust the board put on him but Amir did otherwise.
“Pakistan has invested so much on him and brought him out of the [2010] spot-fixing scandal to the national side and is trying to give him chances. Now that he was in good form, he has retired. It was his time to repay the Pakistan team," Shoaib added.
