Need a Policy to Ensure Players Available for Pakistan First: Misbah-ul-Haq

Pakistan’s head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq has hinted at a policy being put in place to ensure that players will remain available for national team selection.

Pakistan were recently hit by the loss of both Mohammed Amir and Wahab Riaz as both chose to retire from Test match cricket.

As a result, they toured Australia with a largely inexperienced pace line-up and thus struggled to get wickets on a regular basis.



“We are thinking deeply on these lines, and we will make a policy on this (getting players to remain available for selection across formats) very soon,” Misbah said.

“Going forward this might become a problem for Pakistan, because when you invest so much in the players, on their development, and expect them to give back, they leave the game and it’s not the right way to go about it.

“Your resources are consumed for their development and we need a certain policy to make sure players should be available for Pakistan first.”

Nevertheless, the former Pakistan skipper believes there were positives to come out from the Australia series, the most notable of which was the emergence of Babar Azam as a reliable batsman in the longest format of the game.

“The biggest plus for us is Babar Azam and our batting, the way we responded in Australia overall. His hundred in Rawalpindi and his overall shift from white-ball cricket to red is an important positive for Pakistan at this stage.

“And at the same time we’ve got a younger bowling attack. The way Shaheen and Naseem are bowling, consistently hitting 140-plus (kph) in good areas.

“They have ample time in their careers to develop into match-winners. They have played very little cricket so far, but will improve with every passing day.”