Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi broke his silence a day after being left out from the squad for the remaining two Test matches against England. Shaheen, along with Babar Azam, Naseem Shah and Sarfaraz Ahmed were left out from the side as PCB called up the likes of Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Kamran Ghulam and Zahir Mehmood in a radical plot with a hope of change in their fortunes in the second Test in Multan starting October 15 after losing the series opener.
Shaheen took to X (previously Twitter) to wish his teammates the best for the upcoming Test match. "Wishing Team Pakistan the best of luck! Rooting for a strong comeback. We're all cheering for you!," Shaheed wrote.
"We’ve had to carefully consider current player form, the urgency to bounce back in the series and Pakistan’s demanding 2024-25 international schedule. With these factors in mind and in the best interest of Pakistan cricket as well as the players, we’ve made the decision to rest Babar Azam, Naseem Shah, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Shaheen Shah Afridi," Aqib Javed, the selection committee member said on the decision to leave out the star players.
“We are confident that this break from international cricket will help these players regain their fitness, confidence and composure, ensuring they return in top shape for future challenges. They remain some of our finest talents with much more to contribute to Pakistan cricket. We are fully committed to supporting them during this period so they can come back even stronger," he added.
England have made a couple of changes in their XI with regular skipper Ben Stokes coming back and Matthew Potts returning in place of Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson to manage their workloads. Pakistan too will be making a whole lot of them as they look to level the series on a used pitch in Multan.
