This year’s T20 World Cup squad selections by many teams have created a buzz all over the cricketing fraternity. Whether South African Board’s omission of Faf du Plessis or Ben Stokes unavailability for English team selection, all in all, exciting names (or lack of) on the board for every team out there. The Pakistan Cricket team included their T20 legend Shoaib Malik in this year’s World Cup squad.
Shoaib Malik’s selection was a surprise, considering he hasn’t played any international matches for more than a year (he still holds the record for the most number of T20Is played, though). Malik’s selection came into effect as a replacement of Sohaib Maqsood, who will miss the thrilling event due to an untimely back injury.
Exploits in National T20
But what made a case for him this world cup, even though he has been out of favour with the management in recent times? The answer lies in his exploits this year at the National T20 Cup, where he smashed 225 runs in just seven innings at an impeccable strike rate of 149. A hard to miss performance with a little bit of luck in the form of Maqsood’s exit, which made way for his return to the national squad.
The experience factor
Malik is the joint highest scorer in T20 world cup tournaments for Pakistan. He has also led the team at times. Even though his strike rate might be a concern, particularly in this tournament, the additional dimension he provides with his bowling completes the Pakistani squad’s exact requirement.
Apart from this, the sheer fact that Malik is amongst the selected few who have amassed more than 10000 runs in the T20 format and have taken over 150 wickets, making his case stronger. His fitness effort was also visible in the recent domestic games he was part of.
The senior-most player alongside the ‘Universe boss’ in this year’s World Cup (they both debuted in the same year as well!), Malik can indeed be a key factor for Pakistan’s second T20I title. Even though his selection is surprising, one cannot deny that the experience he has in this particular format is abundant. Moreover, one cannot simply ignore that he captained the Pakistan team, the runner up in the first edition of the tournament and was part of the team that won the second edition.