Asia Cup 2023: Inzamam-ul-Haq Reveals Why Shan Masood Didn’t Make It To Pakistan Squad

Pakistan’s new chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq has revealed the reason why Shan Masood was not picked in the squad for Asia Cup 2023. Shan Masood, an opening batter, was expected to be part of the Pakistan team in the Asia Cup 2023.

However, the left-handed batsman did not feature in the squad for Asia Cup 2023. The 33-year-old batsman played some ODI games for Pakistan in 2023. His omission from Asia Cup 2023 was a surprising thing for many fans.

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Shan Masood’s ODI Performances Have Gone Down: Inzamam-ul-Haq

While speaking to ESPN Cricinfo, Inzamam-ul-Haq shed light on why Shan Masood could not make it to the Pakistan squad for Asia Cup 2023. The former Pakistan captain said Masood’s ODI performances have gone down in recent times.

“Shan [Masood] has performed very well on the whole across formats. Unfortunately, his performances in ODIs have gone down. We have a list of 20-21 players, and Shan is part of that.

But Saud Shakeel and a couple of other players were impressive recently, so we had to leave out Shan. But he is a part of our plans,” said Inzamam-ul-Haq, who recently became the chief selector of Pakistan.

Shan Masood played 4 ODI games this year and piled up just 52 runs. He scored a good knock of 44 runs in one game but got out for single-digits in the rest three matches including a duck. Hence, he holds a poor average of 13.0 in ODIs in 2023. So far, Shan Masood has only played 9 ODI games hitting 163 runs and 1 fifty.

Also Read: Asia Cup 2023: “It Is Going To Be More Challenging” – Inzamam-ul-Haq Speaks On Pakistan Chief Selector’s Role

Preference Has Been Given To Faheem Ashraf: Inzamam-ul-Haq

Imzamam-ul-Haq also added that all-rounder Faheem Ashraf has been preferred in the squad because he’s a medium-pace all-rounder and the team needs him.

“Preference has been given to Faheem Ashraf, since the squad doesn’t have another fast-bowling allrounder. If you look at PSL and other tournaments, he was in good form. And we need an allrounder, he is a fast-bowling allrounder, which we need at the World Cup,” Inzamam further added.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently announced squads for Asia Cup 2023 and the Afghanistan ODI series. Babar Azam is the captain while Shadab Khan is the vice-captain. Asia Cup 2023 will commence on August 30.

Also Read: Asia Cup 2023: Inzamam-ul-Haq Tells PCB Not To Sack Mickey Arthur and Grant Bradburn – Reports

Pakistan squad for Asia Cup 2023: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Haris.