KARACHI: In the recently concluded Faysal Bank Twenty20 Cup, the Abbottabad Falcons captain and Pakistan national team’s batsman, Younus Khan, was declared the best batsman of the tournament for scoring 201 runs in the competition. This shows that Younus Khan is in very good form. However, the Mardan-born right-handed batsman was not selected in the squad for the ICC World Twenty20, 2014, which will be held in Bangladesh from March 16.
On the other hand, all-rounder Shoaib Malik has been selected in the squad for reasons best known to the selection committee headed by Azhar Khan. The 32-year-old Malik last scored a 50-plus score in One-Day Internationals in 2009 against India at Centurion, South Africa. In the recent Big Bash League held in Australia, he was able to score only 29 runs at an average of 7.25 in his last five innings for his team, Hobart Hurricanes. His string of low scores included this sequence: 3, 14, 0, 0, 12 not out. To his credit, he did score 65 for Sialkot Stallions against Hyderabad Hawks and an unbeaten 49 against Islamabad Leopards in the Faysal Bank Twenty20.
However, in comparison, Younus Khan has a much superior recent record. He should have been selected in the Twenty20 squad but it seems that once again, the selectors have taken a very big chance by relying on Malik to perform on the big stage.
Mubashir Mahmood
Published in The Express Tribune, February 20th, 2014.
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