Usama Mir has recently been outstanding in white-ball cricket. He made his ODI debut earlier in 2023. Shadab Khan was selected ahead of him in the major competition, indicating that the team administration didn’t have confidence in his ability.
The spinner demonstrated his value during New Zealand’s trip to Pakistan in April, and as a result, he was included in the squad for the Asia Cup.
Former cricketer Mark Butcher, meanwhile, wants Pakistan to avoid making the same error again. Usama Mir has excelled all summer, according to the 51-year-old, and is the player the team management should put their faith in. Butcher stated that if Pakistan decides to double up on spin in the 2018 ODI World Cup, which is set to begin on October 5, Mir would prefer to partner with Mohammad Nawaz because Shadab has not been at his optimum best and has lost his bite.
The man for them is Usama Mir. Watching him play in the PSL in February and March, and then having a great bat-and-ball hundred for the Manchester Originals. For a very long time, Shadab has been bowling deliveries that are essentially hits-me. Really, he’s lost all of his bite, and every time he lets go, it just appears to go out of the park.
“I believe they might need to act a bit shrewdly here. If they are going to use double spin, I would play Mohammad Nawaz here along with Usama Mir, Butcher told Wisden.
Notably, Pakistan’s World Cup campaign will get underway against the Netherlands on October 6 at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. In their first warm-up game against New Zealand, the Babar Azam-led team was defeated. In their second match against Australia, they were defeated despite Mir picking up two wickets and giving up 31 runs in five overs, while Shadab picked up just one wicket and scored just nine runs while batting.
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