CRICKET
Counting on Amir and Yasir
Pakistan cricket team’ s success in England tour will mostly depend on fast bowler Mohammad Amir and leg-spinner Yasir Shah, but inclusion of both stars in the fi nal squad is still uncertain. There have been fears that Amir could be denied England visa for the tour in July this year because of his conviction for spot fi xing in 2010. According to UK immigration rules,“ If a person has been sentenced to a period of between 12 months and less than 4 years imprisonment, the ECO [ Entry Clearance Offi cer ] must refuse the application until 10 years have passed since the end of the sentence.” Amir cannot directly apply for a visa for a certain period due to his status of a convicted offender. But Pakistan Cricket Board( PCB) is trying to remove hurdles and is positive that Amir will receive the visa. Yasir has been ruled out of the boot training camp in Abbottabad after aggravating a previous knee injury, and according to medical reports he will take at least fi ve weeks to recover. He is expected to be fi t in time for the Test series in England, which starts from July 14, but he may miss the preseries conditioning camp in Hampshire. Yasir got a three-month suspension after pleading guilty to breaching the ICC’ s Anti-Doping Code due to which he missed the New Zealand tour, the fi rst Pakistan Super League, the Asia Cup and the World Twenty20. Yasir is currently third on ICC’ s ranking for Test bowlers and is the only Pakistani in the top ten, having taken 76 wickets in 12 Tests since his debut in October 2014, including 49 dismissals in 2015. Yasir could be very useful for Pakistan in England as English players always fail to handle quality spinners. Pakistan whitewashed England in 2012 Test series in the UAE thanks to spinners Saeed Ajmal— the Man of the Series with 24 wickets in three Tests— and Abdul
Rehman— 19 wickets in as many matches. Even part time bowler Muhammad Hafeez managed to take fi ve wickets. Yasir with other spinners like Zulfi qar Babar and Imad Waseem could pose a big threat to the home side. The selectors are expected to name the squad for the England tour in the fi rst week of June. A group of more than 30 players is training in Abbottabad, working on their fi tness under the supervision of the Pakistan Military Academy. Finding out the replacement of great Saeed Ajmal was not an easy task. The management gave chance to leg-spinner Yasir and left-arm spinner Zulfi qar to prove their mettle against Sri Lanka. Before the Test series, Zulfi qar predicted that Yasir would take more wickets than him, and Yasir proved it with his outstanding performance. Yasir, 30, made his Test debut against Australia in Dubai last year. In his fi rst appearance he claimed seven wickets, conceding 116 runs. It was an impressive performance against a worldclass team. The leg spinner from Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, started his fi rst-class cricket career in 2001 and waited for around a decade to play his fi rst One-day International for Pakistan against Zimbabwe in 2011 in which he took two wickets. In his 14-year fi rst-class career he has taken 370 wickets at an average of 25.34. He is the fastest Pakistani bowler to get 50 Test wickets as he did it in his 9th Test, beating Waqar Younis, Shabbir Ahmed and Mohammad Asif, who took 10 Tests to reach this milestone. Yasir is now a permanent member of Pakistan team, especially in Tests. He has fi ve to six years to go on top of the ICC bowlers ranking and become a threat like Saeed Ajmal for the world’ s top batsmen if he remains fi t. Captains Misbah-up-Haq and Azhar Ali will be pleased if both Amir and Yasir travel to England with the teams.
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