“Shaheen Paying For Rehabilitation, PCB Hasn’t Done Anything”: Shahid Afridi Alleges

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) selectors named a 15-member squad for the 2022 T20 World Cup on Thursday. They included young left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi, who is currently recovering from injury, in the squad. Shaheen, 22, injured his knee while fielding during the first Test in Sri Lanka in July and missed the Asia Cup earlier this month. The lanky left-arm paceman will also miss the seven-match T20I series against England starting in Karachi from September 20 but chief selector Mohammad Wasim said his injury is being monitored. “We are assessing Shaheen’s injury and hope that he will be fit,” Wasim said in a press conference in Lahore.

However, former Pakistan cricket team captain Shahid Afridi has said that the young pacer is paying for his own rehabilitation in England.

“Shaheen Afridi has gone on his own to England. He has even paid for his own ticket. He is staying in England on his own money. I arranged a doctor for him, and then he contacted the doctor when he landed there. The PCB hasn’t done anything,” Afridi said in a discussion on Samaa TV.

“From the coordination to his accommodation, he is doing everything on his own. Zakir Khan (PCB’s director of international cricket) spoke to him just once or twice.”

Pakistan are placed in Group 2 of the Twenty20 World Cup with arch-rivals India, South Africa, Bangladesh, and two qualifier teams who will come from the first round. They play India in a sell-out first match in Melbourne on October 23.

Pakistan T20 World Cup and New Zealand tri-series squad: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Usman Qadir

Promoted

Travelling reserves: Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Haris, Shahnawaz Dahani

With AFP inputs