Selection in Pakistan cricket has always been biased against the senior players. If a senior cricketer performs badly in a few matches, people soon start raising voice for his ouster, forgetting all his previous performances. But junior cricketers, particularly those who come from under 19 cricket, are given a number of opportunities despite repeated failures.
Imran Nazir has played around 70 matches for Pakistan, although he has never been consistent. His average is under 25 runs. He continued to get opportunity to play for Pakistan for almost eight years.
But Misbahul Haq was ousted last year after a few bad performances although his average was far better.
This year, too, after the defeat at the hands of India in semifinal at the world cup, Younis Khan and Abdul Razzaq have been ousted although both of them performed much better than Ahmad Shehzad who was retained for the tour to West Indies. Shehzad scored less than 50 runs in five matches. Younis Khan scored around 200 runs and Abdul Razzaq scored at an average of 26 and took six wickets from eight matches.
Similarly, players from Pakistan under 19 team are preferred over those who have performed well in the domestic first class season like handing Shoaib Malik test cap in late 2000 when Arshad Khan, a much better off and much more experienced off spinner, had performed well earlier that year. Shoaib could never prove himself a successufl bowler, not even in one-day cricket.
Moreover, Shoaib Malik was made captain at a time when many players much more experienced than him were available like Yousuf, Younis, Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi.
In the current tour to West Indies, this practice of ignoring seniors continues. Junaid Khan has been repeatedly given chances despite ordinary showings while Tanveer Ahmad, a star performer at the domestic tournaments, sits out. Unfortunate Tanveer has been facing injustice since last summer when Wahab Riaz was preferred over him during the series against England. He is 31 and so has a lot more experience than both Riaz and Khan. But he continues to remain out. Sometime back Kamran Hussain and Samiullah Niazi were thrown out after just a few matches against Zimbabwe, but Junaid Khan was retained for the third match in the current series although he remained wicketless in the first two.
And this policy has always backfired. Those cricketers who are directly inducted into the team without much first class experience usually fail at the top and have to be thrown out after sometime. The examples are Hasan Raza, Irfan Fazil, Saleem Elahi, Qaiser Abbas, etc.
While those who came into the side after playing first class cricket for sometime performed consistently and became permanent part of the team. Examples are YOunis, Yousuf, Kamran Akmal and Misbah.
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