Asia Cup 2022: Unless The Team Is Settled, There's No Point - Former Pakistan Player Questions PCB's Multiple Changes To Asia Cup Squad

Former Pakistan cricketer Tauseef Ahmed felt that PCB put the Asia Cup on the backburner and instead focused on trying to win matches against their arch-rivals, India.

He reckoned that the number of changes made in the squad for the Asia Cup, none bigger than the exclusion of Hasan Ali, don’t make any sense. Babar Azam and co. have a relatively new-look team which didn’t sit right with Ahmed.

“Ye rona dhona toh bohot puraana hai (this has been going on for long now). You didn’t try to settle the team. The same players that were there a few years ago are coming back in some way or the other.”

“When something this crucial coming up, you go back to those players about whom you once said that they should leave cricket. It means you didn’t have a back-up plan,” said Ahmed on Sports Paktv.

“We only care about those 2-3 games against India” – Tauseef Ahmed

Ahmed said there is no long-term planning and the players who have no real future with the team keep getting opportunities at the expense of the players who deserve them.

“Unless you’re not settled, there’s no point. There was Saud Shakeel, there were 2-3 other players, where are they now? We want our team to be good. We were thinking they will pick Shoaib Malik.”

“Because you only remember these people at this time. But we don’t really care about the Asia Cup, we only care about those 2-3 games against India. It’s like.. ‘if we win these, that’s it’. That’s not the way. You need planning,” he added.

Pakistan squad for Asia Cup 2022:

Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir.

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