Miandad lashes out at Ahmed Shehzad over claims he can represent Pakistan

New Delhi: Pakistan cricketing legend Javed Miandad on Sunday lashed out at out-of-favour Pakistan batsman Ahmed Shehzad after the latter claimed that he can play for 12 years in cricket. In an interview to Cricket Pakistan, Shehzad said that he still hopes to represent Pakistan as he has learnt from his past experiences. “The past two years have been tough for but I have learned a lot in that span of time and hopefully this will prove beneficial in the my upcoming years in cricket. Bearing in mind my fitness and skills, I think I can represent Pakistan for another 12 years and that is not an exaggeration,” he had said.

In a Youtube video, Miandad criticised Shehzad for his claims and asked him to let his performance do the talking. “You [Ahmed Shehzad] can play for 20 years rather than just 12, I guarantee you that but you need to perform. If you perform daily nobody will drop you from the side,” said Miandad. “If other players are performing then they will be preferred over you with regards to playing for the national side.”

“Players should not give such irresponsible statements and instead let their performance do the talking on the field,” he added.

“In other countries, players get selected on a series by series basis. But in Pakistan you get to play 10 matches based on just one century. This is partly the reason why there are problems in our team,” he said. “As a player you should have good performance in eight out of 10 matches you play on average.”

Ahmed Shehzad has played 13 Tests, 81 ODIs and 59 T20Is for Pakistan. He last played an ODI for Pakistan back in October 2017. His last appearance in the longest format was back in May 2017. His last international appearance for Pakistan was in October 2019 in a T20I game against Sri Lanka.