Shaheen Shah Afridi Reportedly Facing Exclusion from Pakistan Test Team

Pakistan ODI captain Shaheen Shah Afridi is likely to be left out of the test squad as the team gets ready for the upcoming tour of the West Indies.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has called 49 players to a training camp in Lahore, which includes 22 red-ball players and 27 white-ball players.

Reports suggest that the PCB management has decided not to pick Afridi for the test camp. However, he is still part of the white-ball squad of 27 players and is expected to join the camp on June 15.

Talking about Shaheen Afridi’s Test career, he has taken 126 wickets at an average of 28.13, giving away 3,545 runs in 1,114 overs. In his latest series against Bangladesh, Pakistan lost the match in Mirpur by 104 runs and also faced a clean sweep in red-ball cricket in Bangladesh for the first time.

Afridi picked up just 3 wickets in the first innings from 31.1 overs and 2 in the second innings from 16 overs. He was later dropped for the second test in Sylhet, with Khurram Shahzad coming into the side in his place. Meanwhile, his pace during the Bangladesh tour also raised questions, as he struggled to regularly bowl above 140 kph and was often seen operating around 134 kph.

Afridi played his maiden first-class match at the age of 17 for KRL against Rawalpindi. According to reports, the PCB is worried about his limited involvement in four-day domestic cricket, with officials feeling it could slow down his progress in test cricket. Because of these concerns, the ODI captain is unlikely to be in the plans for future Test selections.

Pakistan are currently enjoying a long break of over 50 days from international cricket after securing their third ODI series win in a row against Australia. They wrapped up the series with a narrow four-wicket victory in a low-scoring final game.

The team will start its summer campaign with a two-match test series against the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, which will be played from July 25–29 and August 2–6.

Pakistan Red-Ball Camp Squad

Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Fazal, Abrar Ahmed, Ali Usman, Amad Butt, Azan Awais, Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Muhammad Awais Zafar, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori, Obaid Shah, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Saqib Khan, Saud Shakeel, Shahnawaz Dahani, Shahzad Gul and Shan Masood.