KARACHI: Pakistan Test cricketer Ahmed Shehzad has spoken for the first time about his exclusion from the national team, calling it a “pre-planned approach”.
Ahmed, in an exclusive interview with pakistan cricketchallenged then Pakistan cricket team head coach Waqar Younis to a face-to-face confrontation as the former claimed his report in 2016 took a toll on his burgeoning career.
In the report, Waqar wrote to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) management that Ahmed and Umar Akmal must play national cricket to return to the national team.
“I myself have not seen the report, but a PCB official told me that these comments have been said about me. But I believe that these things should be discussed face to face and I am ready to take on that challenge. Then we will see who is right and who is wrong,” Ahmed told Cricket Pakistan.
“Maybe I have more to say and might even have a bigger reach than them, but I choose to stay quiet because you need to live up to your own standards. But his words damaged my career, especially because they did not allow me to present my case, ”he maintained.
Shehzad then went on to call him a pre-planned approach to associate his name with Akmal in order to portray a negative image of him.
“Some of my teammates tried to associate my name with Umar Akmal planning to give a negative impression on me,” Ahmed said.
“This was a pre-planned approach and they wanted to kill two birds with one stone. I won’t say his name, but I won’t make it public. It started from within the team,” he continued.
The right-handed batsman also compared his case to former Indian captain Virat Kohli and stated that the latter achieved success due to his senior MS Dhoni, while complaining that in Pakistan, senior players let juniors down.
“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, Kohli’s career got off to an amazing start because he found MS Dhoni, but unfortunately, here in Pakistan, his own people can’t stand his success,” Ahmed said.
“Our own veteran players and ex-cricketers can’t stomach seeing someone succeed in the world of cricket, which is unfortunate for Pakistani cricket,” he stressed.
It is pertinent to mention here that Ahmed last represented Pakistan in 2019 during Sri Lanka’s tour of the country. The tour team cleanly swept the Green Shirts 3-0.
The series, however, concluded in the second T20I for Ahmed, as he was not selected in the Playing XI in the final match.
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