After sweeping the Test series 3-0 against the touring English cricket team, Pakistani cricketers are busy in their 4-match ODI series in the United Arab Emirates.
Hopefully, the Pakistani team would continue their superb performance in the limited versions of the game as well, but Pakistan selectors made some bizarre decisions while choosing their outfit for ODIs and T20s.
In this regard, Pakistani skipper, Misbah-ul-Haq, demonstrated a weird approach when he insisted on the inclusion of badly out-of-form all-rounder, Shoaib Malik, in the team for ODIs and T20s. And Pakistani selectors obediently and instantly accepted the strange demand from the veteran skipper.
Actually Shoaib Malik was dropped from the limited-overs squad for the series against England but drafted back into the side after a request from captain Misbah-ul-Haq. It may be recalled here that Malik has been given a full fledged chance in the national team during 2011 against low-ranked teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh but he could not justify his place in the national team.
It may be mentioned here that Shoaib Malik has strong influence in PCB circles. His recent meeting with the President Asif Ali Zardari is enough to indicate his political influence.
Remember, Shoaib Malik and his wife Indian tennis player Sania Mirza called on President Asif Ali Zardari at Aiwan-e-Sadr a couple of months back. The President, during the meeting, had appreciated Shoaib's cricket skills.
PCB Chief Operating Officer, Subhan Ahmad, said that Shoaib's inclusion in the squad was based on merit and not due to any favouritism.
"Although he (Malik) has been away from international cricket for quite some time, he has been performing well in domestic cricket," he said in a statement.
Former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, in his book Controversially Your's labeled Shoaib Malik as the stooge of the Pakistan Cricket Board: "Shoaib Malik does not deserve to be captain and was made captain because he was a stooge of the PCB Chief, Naseem Ashraf", Akhtar wrote in his book.
On the other hand, in an odd approach, PCB selectors continuously ignored tried and tested match-winner Abdur Razzaq. It is to be noted here that Shoaib Malik could not score a single fifty during his last 18 ODIs while Razzaq has showed excellent performance on a number of occasions in the same number of matches. Remember, Razzaq has been sent down the batting order by team managements consistently to ruin his career during the last 4/5 years. Cricket experts know it well that no batsman can demonstrate his match-winning performance in the last one or two overs of the innings. But it seemed that Razzaq was sent at number 8 or 9 deliberately to end his career pre-maturely.
Razzaq, who is at the twilight of his career, was dropped from the Pakistan squad for the West Indies series last year. After the ICC World Cup 2011, which concluded on April 2, 2011, the selection committee of the Pakistan Cricket Board decided to exclude the all-rounder, who according to them, lacked the will to win matches.
It is true that Razzaq offered some lacklustre performances in the ICC world Cup 2011, but the critics must also keep in mind that he had been put under immense pressure due to which he could not perform as per his potential.
When contacted, the defiant all-rounder expressed his disappointment after not being considered for the England series. He said that he was sent way down the batting order whereas he wanted to bat at number three. "The team management did not take full advantage of my talent," he blamed.
Razzaq has always been regarded as a match winning player for his team but for the last few series he has been a mediocre player, which leads one to think that perhaps the time has come for the PCB to start looking for another all-rounder as his replacement.
No one can deny the fact that in November 2010, Razzaq played a gem of an innings when he single-handedly won Pakistan a match against the mighty South Africans in a One-Day series played in the United Arab Emirates. He snatched victory out of the grasp of Graeme Smith's men. The five-match One-Day series was kept alive because of Razzaq's match winning performance with the bat. Nonetheless, the series was taken by Proteas 3-2. After this, it was off to New Zealand, where Pakistan had a commendable tournament. After losing the three-match Twenty20 series 2-1, the Men in Green bounced back by taking the six-match one-day series 3-2 and then went on to win the two-match Test series 1-0.
The 32-year old Razzaq believes that he can still perform for the national side for another two to three years.
These days, the charismatic all-rounder is participating in the Bangladesh T20 League. Razzaq deserves to go out with a bang just like former great, Imran Khan, and the ICC T20 Championship 2012 will be the best opportunity for the all-rounder to shine.
The PCB should not discard him and make sure that he is given a fair chance to make a comeback in the national squad.