Mohammad Shahzad breaks down on being forced out of World Cup by Afghanistan board, massive politics in Afghanistan cricket
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Released from Afghanistan’s 15 man squad for the ongoing ICC ODI Cricket World Cup 2019, wicket–keeper Mohammed Shahzad has finally come out in the open to speak about the issue. Releasing his message through journalist’s M.Ibrahim Momand Twitter account, the Afghan opener appeared visibly upset over his exclusion which he termed as unfair by the Afghanistan Cricket Board.
The tweet which has been sent out by Momand shows the clean and hard hitting Shahzad breaking down ever since being sent back from England. In the statement released by Shahzad, Afghanistan’s pivotal figure at the top of their batting order alleges that he was treated unfairly by the Afghanistan Cricket Board who took the decision without prior consultation with him.
Shahzad further goes onto add that the knee injury he had sustained during Afghanistan’s warm-up matches in the build up to the quadrennial tournament was completely fine and he had not aggregated it, in contrast to the ACB’s statement a few days back. He said there was no intervention into the issue and slammed the team management for ruling him out for the entirety of the event without discussing the matter at length with him before hand.
Mohammad Shahzad’s statement on being ruled out of World Cup 2019
“I have no problem or injury & fully fit but @ACBofficials pulled me out of the squad by force without any consultation”Says @MShahzad077 who is ruled out of @cricketworldcup due to a knee injury in his recent voice clip to a media in #Kabul as he is set to return home tomorrow.”
Shahzad’s explosive revelations are set to add further turmoil to the Afghanistan contingent who are struggling to come to terms with the world class standards of cricket they are up against in the World Cup. The move which he claims was uncalled for after no concerns revolving his injury surfaced saw the wicket-keeper being replaced by Ikram Ali Khil in a like by like replacement. The Event Technical Committee had approved the move following which Khil was roped into Afghanistan’s lower middle-order against New Zealand, a match in which he managed to score 2 runs off 22 balls.
Shahzad himself had endured a sordid time in his short sojourn at the marquee tournament. He was injured in his side’s opening warm-up match against Pakistan where he walked away retired after failing to continue. However injury concerns seemed to have been put to bed after he represented his side in their opening two encounters against Australia and Sri Lanka. He failed to impress though with scores of 0 and 7 along with allowing the ball slip through his ball more than a couple times when his side met Sri Lanka.
What next for Afghanistan?
His absence from Afghanistan’s line-up though is bound to be a massive setback to the Afghanistan team who are enduring a horrendous time themselves in the tournament. They’ve gone onto lose all three of their starting clashes by massive margins, being comprehensively defeated with the abject batting performances seeing them being dismissed for 207, 201 and 172.
Shahzad is well versed with taking on bowlers and making the most of the first period, a duration in which he’s oftenly upped the ante for his side. With 2,727 runs in 84 matches which include 14 50s and 4 centuries, the opener is Afghanistan’s highest run scorer in the 50 over format.
What Shahzad’s latest comments do point to though is that all is not well inside the Afghanistani team. The side had only recently replaced Asghar Afghan as captain with Gulbadin Naib being handed over the mantle. However, with Asghar Afghan failing to get an outing till now in the batting line-up, the team management have come under heavy flak with the clamour for including the astute middle-order operator increasing.
