Dhoni backed Kohli; Ahmed Shehzad cries foul over lack of support in Pakistan

Hyderabad: Ahmed Shehzad is one of the most talented Pakistani cricketers. Shehzad, who made his international debut for Pakistan at the age of 17 in 2009, has been a major batsman in the top order. He has played 13 Tests, 81 ODIs and 59 T20I matches for Pakistan. However, after the 2016 T20 World Cup, Ahmed Shehzad was sidelined.

Shehzad, who last played T20 for Pakistan in 2019, has not returned to the team since then. After the 2016 T20 World Cup, the then Pakistan coach Waqar Younis submitted a report to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Shehzad and Umran Malik were named in the report and he said in the report that it would be better to remove these two from the team. He said he needed to play domestic cricket to get back into the national team. For this reason, Ahmad Shehzad was removed. Gradually after that, he moved away from the team.

Recently Ahmed Shehzad reacted to his removal from the team. "There is no support from seniors in Pakistan cricket like Team India. For instance, Kohli-Dhoni in Team India. When Kohli lost his form and was under pressure, the then captain and senior player MS Dhoni stood by Kohli. Kohli has been given chances despite failing in a row. After that Kohli regained his super form and excelled. But unfortunately, that is not the case in Pakistan.

“The fact is that a player is doing well here shows that seniors are more prone to rot and jealousy. I would say this is really unfortunate. I do not blame the committee that reported on me. Because the PCB asked and the committee did their duty. But, it would have been better had they spoken directly once before submitting the report. What is right .. what is wrong has to be said clearly. The report states that due to my aggressive nature, there are conflicts in the team. If I had been told the same thing directly, I would have been changed," he said.