Zaka Ashraf, the new Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, has taken the first step correctly. He has brought back Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq. Afridi had to leave because of differences with Waqar Younis. Abdul was ousted after the 2011 world cup despite being given few chances to bowl or bat in the tournament.
Pakistan won the recent one-day series against Zimbabwe, but not as convincingly as it should have. These two players were greatly missed. There was no hard hitting in the late overs. Had these two been in the team, Pakistan would have scored 300 every time the team batted first.
Abdul is the best one-day all-rounder Pakistan has ever produced. He is even better than the mighty Imran Khan. Dropping him was a grave mistake. And bringing him back is a mighty good decision. His batting skills have been greatly underutilized in the recent years. He must be given chance to bat in the upper order. Sending him to bat at No. 8 is a stupid thing to do. He is better than any wicket keeper batsman Pakistan has. I think he should be asked to bat at number 6. There his skills will be fully utilized.
Similarly, Afridi is a better one-day bowler than Abdul Rehman and his batting skills make him an automatic choice as an all-rounder. He has greatly improved his bowling in the recent years. He should be used as a bowling all-rounder in the team.
