Pakistan leave out Shaheen Afridi for second Test

Pakistan’s ace paceman Shaheen Afridi has been left out of the 12-man squad for the second Test against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi, starting on August 30 (Friday). After Pakistan lost the opening Test by 10 wickets, Afridi left the squad to be with his family for the birth of his child but rejoined the squad on Thursday evening.

The left-arm seamer bowled 32 overs in the first Test and took two wickets for 96 runs. Since 2022, Afridi has taken 29 wickets in nine Tests at an average of 36.6 and a strike rate of 65.5. Pakistan’s Test coach, Jason Gillespie, however, didn’t clearly mention why he was left out of the squad.

"Shaheen's missed out this game. We've had a good conversation with him, and he fully understands and appreciates the thinking behind it. Shaheen's been given some feedback. He's working on some things with his bowling to be as effective as he possibly can be. He's working really well with Azhar Mahmood. We want to see Shaheen at his best because we've got a lot of cricket in all formats and Shaheen's going to play a really big role in that.

"Shaheen's had an interesting last couple of weeks. He's a new father. We're seeing an opportunity where we're able to allow him to go and spend some time with his family as well."

Pakistan have also roped in legspinner Abrar Ahmed, Mir Hamza, Aamer Jamal and Kamran Ghulam for the second Test. The latter two, however, are not part of the 12. Abrar is the only frontline spinner in the squad and is most likely to feature in the XI. Pakistan didn’t have a single spinner in their team in the first Test and it cost them big time.

"We're looking at what our best combination is this game. We'll look at conditions and decide what the best makeup of our bowling attack looks like. We haven't been able to look at the surface much because of the weather, so we wanted to name 12. We want to be as informed as we possibly can before we select the side we think is best capable of taking 20 wickets."

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