Lahore, October 17: Coming down hard on Younis Khan, former pace bowler Sarfraz Nawaz has asserted that the right-handed batsman’s sudden resignation from the national team captaincy was just an attempt to disguise his shortcomings in the ODIs.
Nawaz further stressed that Younis should give up on one-day cricket and concentrate on Tests.
”Just like Younis quit Twenty20 format of the game, now it’s high time he should forget playing one-day cricket too,” Nawaz was qouted as saying by ‘The News’.
”It’s better he should play only as a team member in Test matches,” he added.
Younus tendered his resignation to PCB in protest at match-fixing allegations against the team.
Sources close to Younus said he had told PCB chief Ijaz Butt he would only withdraw his resignation if certain conditions were accepted by the board.
The middle-order batsman was retired from Twenty20 cricket after leading Pakistan to victory in the T20 World Cup in England earlier this year. However, he wanted to continue playing test matches and One-day Internationals.
”All this captaincy controversy is just creating more confusion in Pakistan cricket,” Nawaz said.
”Younis wants to gain people’s sympathy by resigning from the captaincy and he is trying to hide his faults which he committed during the Champions Trophy.
”He should realise himself that he does not fit in shorter formats of the game,” he added.
The 60-year-old former right-armer also suggested that opening batsman Salman Butt should be named as the new Test captain if Younis does not resume the job, while saying Shahid Afridi – already captain of the Twenty20 side – should also be the one-day skipper.
”The PCB should have made Afridi captain for both Twenty20 and ODIs instead of naming separate captains,” he said.
Nawaz said Younis should have come back home from the Champions Trophy when he injured a finger, instead of playing on and subsequently struggling for form.
”When he was advised four-weeks rest I fail to understand why the (team) management allowed him to stay with the team.
”When the captain scores at an average of less than 20 how could other team members perform?” Younis has sustained a finger injury before the start of Champions Trophy in South Africa but he prefred to play in an all the matches except the opening one including an all important tie against India in which Pakistan emerged victorius.
However, under dogs New Zealand defeated Pakistan in semi-finals to cut short Younis dreams to win two back-to-back ICC events and Champions Trophy for the first time.
—–Agencies