Pakistan Cricket retain Yousuf, Shafiq in revamped selection panel

Yousuf and Shafiq were members of the previous selection committee which picked the T20 World Cup squad.

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: Pakistan Cricket retain Yousuf, Shafiq in revamped selection panel. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has retained former players Mohammad Yousuf and Asad Shafiq in the revamped selection committee which will pick the teams for the home Test series against Bangladesh next month.

Yousuf and Shafiq were members of the previous selection committee which picked the T20 World Cup squad.

The PCB sacked members Wahab Riaz and Abdul Razzaq after the team failed to go beyond the first round in the mega event but surprisingly has retained Yousuf and Shafiq.

Yousuf was also the batting coach of the Pakistan team while Wahab also served as senior team manager on the tours to Ireland, England and in the World Cup.

The new committee will also include the captains and head coaches of the red and white-ball teams. All the members including Yousuf and Shafiq will hold voting rights and have decision-making authority.

In a new development, the board has also nominated assistant team coach Azhar Mahmood and four of its board members/employees as the non-voting members of the committee.

These include the advisor to PCB Chairman Bilal Afzal, Manager of Analytics and Team Strategy Hassan Cheema, Director of High-Performance Nadeem Khan, and Director of International Cricket Usman Wahla.

The restructured committee will be responsible for selecting the squad for the two-Test series against Bangladesh, which is part of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 cycle.

Bangladesh will face Pakistan in two Tests, with matches scheduled in Rawalpindi from August 21-25 and in Karachi from August 30-September 3.