PCB chief addresses Fakhar Zaman’s snub from Pakistan squad

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi has addressed opening batter Fakhar Zaman’s exclusion from the national squads for upcoming tours.

In an informal chat with the media in Karachi, Naqvi denied having any role in the selection or exclusion of players from the national squad.

“I don’t interfere in any player’s selection. The selection committee will decide whether Fakhar Zaman will be in the team or not,” the PCB chief said. “I never told [selection committee] to select or drop a certain player.”

His statement came days after the left-handed batter was left out of the Pakistan Cricket Board’s central contracts list for the 2024-25 international season.

Fakhar Zaman also failed to make it to the squads for the upcoming tours to Australia and Zimbabwe.

During a press conference in Lahore where he announced the appointment of wicketkeeping batter Mohammad Rizwan as the white ball captain, the PCB chief said that Zaman was left out of the squads over fitness concerns.

“There is the tweet issue definitely. But that doesn’t matter as much as his fitness tests. He had two issues: the fitness test and the show-cause notice, which is still pending. That is why he hasn’t been included (in the central contracts list),” Mohsin Naqvi said.

It is worth mentioning here that Fakhar Zaman criticised the decision to drop Babar Azam from the Pakistan squad for the last two games against England in the recently concluded Test series.

In a post on X, the left-handed batter urged to focus on safeguarding key players rather than undermining them.

“If we are considering sidelining our premier batsman, arguably the best Pakistan has ever produced, it could send a deeply negative message across the team. There is still time to avoid pressing the panic button; we should focus on safeguarding our key players rather than undermining them,” he wrote in the post.