Shahid Afridi has recently announced that he will only select players with 135+ runs average for T20s. After this announcement people on Twitter are calling for Babar and Rizwan to take retirement. According to the announcement, Players with a strike rate of less than 130 in domestic T20 competitions will not be selected. The players will not be taken into consideration for selection to the national T20 squad. Shahid Afridi made the announcement publicly after becoming Pakistan’s interim chief selector.
Afridi was appointed the interim chief selector because of a recent change in the Pakistan Cricket Board’s power structure. Najam Sethi took over as PCB chief last month after the board fired former captain Ramiz Raja. Sethi and Afridi met with current Pakistan captain Babar Azam in a private setting to go over ideas for modernizing Pakistan cricket. The meeting solely focused on enhancing the team’s overall performance.
Afridi made a public statement on Monday outlining the minimum strike rate for players required to be selected for Pakistan’s T20s team. During his playing career, the former all-rounder was renowned for his exceptional strike rate. However, It is still unclear whether the interim selector’s directive applied only to Pakistani players who were playing in domestic T20 tournaments. Regardless the playing international players are also in a worry.
People on Twitter mocked Mohammad Rizwan and captain Babar Azam based on the latter scenario. The pair is Pakistan’s top two scorers in T20Is, but their strike rate has frequently been a source of contention.
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There were some humorous responses to Afridi’s striking statement. The people compared the 2 players and their stats. Rizwan’s T20 strike rate is 125.49, compared to Babar Azam’s T20 strike rate of 127.55. Looking at these stats, it looks like the pair would not make it to the squad. However, Shahid Afridi said that Babar Azam is the backbone of the team.
On Saturday, PCB interim chief selector Afridi backed Pakistan captain Babar Azam. He also stated that he wanted the team’s bench strength to be stronger. Shahid Afridi discussed his goals for the group while serving as an interim chief selector.