The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has revamped its senior men's selection committee yet again. The former ICC Elite Panel umpire Aleem Dar is now one of the latest addition to the committee.
Dar, who had stepped down from the ICC's Elite Panel in March 2023 is one of the three new additions to the committee alongside Aqib Javed and Azhar Ali.
The trio has joined Asad Shafiq, Hassan Cheema (analyst), the head coach and captain who were already members of the committee. All these seven members will have voting rights.
Notably, there are four non-voting members - Azhar Mahmood (assistant coach), Nadeem Khan (Director - High Performance), Bilal Afzal (advisor to PCB chairman) and Usman Wahla (Director - International Cricket).
The latest restructuring has come after Pakistan's humiliating loss at the hands of England in the first Test of the three-match series in Multan. Pakistan got hammered by an innings and 47 runs despite scoring 556 runs in the first innings.
Pakistan had only announced the squad for the first Test and therefore the first assignment of the revamped committee will be to pick the squad for the second Test. Selecting bowlers who could take 20 wickets, Shan Masood's captaincy and the consistent failure of players like Babar Azam among others is likely to trouble the selectors prior to the second Test.
While Masood played brilliantly as a batter in the Test series opener against England as he scored a well-compiled 151, his inability to produce results as captain is bothering the board and the selection panel. Masood has led Pakistan in six Tests but his search for the maiden win as captain continues.
Meanwhile, Pakistan have also been knocked out of the race to the ICC World Test Championship finals after their loss in Multan. They are languishing at the bottom of the WTC table with a PCT (points percentage system) of 16.67%.
