Yasir Shah claims he’s fit to play against Zimbabwe

ISLAMABAD: Country’s most successful Test leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who has been dropped from the Test squad for the tour to Zimbabwe, Friday said that he has regained his fitness and was planning to restart training in the next few days.

Talking to ‘The News’ following the decision of selection committee to rest him for the Test series against South Africa, Yasir said he had some knee problem but has regained complete fitness now.

“The Test series will be played after almost a month’s time. One-Day and T20 matches will be held first so the Test series against Zimbabwe will be starting after mid-April. Now when I have recovered from a knee problem, I can start training in the nets in a few days and hopefully would be in the best of rhythm in a couple of weeks,” Yasir said.

The leg-spinner added that his problem was not so serious. “Despite of this problem I continued taking wickets. After a brief rest from active cricket, now I am feeling much better and have recovered fully.”

Chief selector Mohammad Wasim, who also talked to ‘The News’, however said that there were some problems with Yasir’s fitness as well as his action.

“We want him to work on both the issues and get fully recovered. This was the only reason for which he was sidelined from the Test series against Zimbabwe.

“Yasir is suffering from knee injury and requires six more weeks to recover fully. His absence form team has opened doors for Zahid Mahmood, who will have a stronger case in the Test squad as compared to the T20I side following the return of Shadab Khan and the presence of Usman Qadir. For a place in the Test side, Zahid will compete with Nauman Ali and Sajid Khan, who were the two outstanding bowlers in the first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy,” the chief selector added.

When questioned about Yasir’s hope to recover fully by the time Test series starts after more than a month time, Wasim said he was in a mood to take chances.

“We need completely fit Yasir for Test series to be played later. We want him ready for more important international commitments in months to come. At the same time we want to test Zahid’s prowess for the Tests. He has shown guts in domestic cricket and white-ball international cricket. We also need to test his skills in red-ball cricket.”

The selectors have continued with their habits of keeping on players for years and then dropping them all of a sudden without thinking about the investment on their grooming. Hussain Talat, Imad Wasim, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah and Imad Butt, who were part of the team previously, had also been sidelined from the tour.

“I cannot comment on the previous selections but some of the players were not delivering and due to this reason they were dropped from the African tour,” Wasim said.

The chief selector, however, preferred Mohammad Nawaz over Imad Wasim for the series.

“He has proved himself during the series against South Africa. Nawaz deserves another chance.”