Lahore, August 09: With Pakistan struggling to produce quality batsmen in the recent past, former Test captain Aamir Sohail blamed Inzamam-ul Haq for the perennial problem, saying he never allowed players to settle down in the team.
Sohail said the team was far better when legendaries Imran Khan or Javed Miandad retired, but by the time Inzamam, country’s one of the most capped batsman, retired he had disturbed the national team leaving it to face numerous problems.
”When Imran Khan retired, he left behind a pack of quality bowlers, when Javed Miandad retired he left behind a legacy of good batsmen but when Inzamam retired he left behind nothing,” Sohail told ‘Geo super channel’.
The former captain further said Inzamam, during his captaincy, didn’t allow any batsmen to settle down or groomed to take over when the big guns retired.
”Good players like Yasir Hameed, Asim Kamal, Faisal Iqbal, Taufiq Umar or Hasan Reza who had done well in the chances given to them were never allowed to settle down in the team and establish themselves,” he explained.
”The result is that today we don’t have a ready line of batsmen to replace seniors. That is why I blame Inzamam for the current crisis in the team,” Sohail said.
With 120 Test and 398 one-day international caps, Inzamam retired in 2007 after leading the national side for four successive years.
Sohail also criticised the national selectors and the management of the team for misleading the board to believe that there was enough back up talent in the national side to replace experienced players like Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan or Faisal Iqbal.
”The truth is they misled the PCB Chairman into believing that he could manage the national team without Yousuf and Younus and that is why we are facing problems in England on Monday,” he added.
——-UNI