Pakistan's speedster Sohail Khan has been dropped for all formats for the tour to the West Indies because of his spat with team's bowling coach, Azhar Mahmood
Pakistan's speedster Sohail Khan has been dropped for all formats for the tour to the West Indies because of his spat with team's bowling coach, Azhar Mahmood
Sohail Khan
Karachi: Pakistan's speedster Sohail Khan has been dropped for all formats for the tour to the West Indies because of his spat with team's bowling coach, Azhar Mahmood.
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Although chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq and the national team head coach Mickey Arthur have claim that Sohail has been dropped for the West Indies tour because of fitness issues, but the daily 'Jang' reported on Monday that the pacer had been dropped on disciplinary grounds.
The newspaper reported that the argument took place during the Pakistan Super League when Sohail played for Karachi Kings franchise which also had Arthur and Azhar as the franchise's head coach and bowling coach.
Azhar Mahmood
"Sohail at one point during the playoff against Peshawar Zalmi flatly refused to listen to what advice the bowling coach gave him. He also accused Azhar of always favoring and being soft on his two favorite bowlers, Wahab Riaz and Muhammad Aamir," the report said.
"Sohail told Azhar that he (Azhar) was always targeting him for criticism in the Pakistan team as well and that he couldn't tolerate this any longer."
The report said that Azhar a former Pakistan allrounder was extremely upset after the outburst by Sohail and reported the matter to Arthur and also gave Sohail a piece of his mind in the Karachi Kings dressing room in Dubai.
Apparently the matter was then brought to the notice of the chief selector but he insists that Sohail¿s ouster for the West Indies tour was mainly because of his fitness and fielding issues.
But the newspaper claimed that it was the alteration with Azhar and his attitude which eventually led to his ouster from the Pakistan team as Sohail's fitness is better than some other players.
The selectors and Arthur have copped a lot of criticism for dropping Sohail who was declared the best bowler of the PSL last month.
The criticism came after one particular incident in the PSL when during a time out Karachi Kings head coach, Arthur was seen giving Sohail a verbal lashing live on air something which rankled many former players.
Mickey Arthur
One of them former test captain, Ramiz Raja noted at that time that such incidents used to take place in the dressing room and now they were happening out in the open which was not good for Pakistan cricket.
Arthur also faced a backlash when last year on the tour to Australia he gave a radio interview in which he gave a dressing down to Sohail and termed him not up to the mark.
The outspoken pacer has impressed with his performances and has taken 27 wickets in 9 Tests and 19 in 13 ODIs and also played a couple of good innings lower down the order.
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