KARACHI
\nRecently named one of the consultant members of the Wahab Riaz-led national selection committee, out-of-favour Pakistan international Asad Shafiq is still waiting for clarity over his new role.
\nAsad was appointed in the position following the removal of former captain Salman Butt from the committee just a day after the latter\u2019s inclusion in it had drawn backlash due to his history of being the central figure of the spot-fixing saga that shook Pakistan cricket in 2010.
\nAlthough Asad was readily brought on board in place of Salman to join other consultant members in Pakistan discard Kamran Akmal and ex player Rao Iftikhar Anjum, the 37-year-old hasn\u2019t been communicated clearly the nature of the job.
\n\u201cI still haven\u2019t been told how exactly I need to go about it,\u201d he told Dawn after the National T20 Cup match between Karachi Whites and Abbotabad on Monday.
\n\u201cMy talks [with the PCB] have been only verbal so far and I\u2019ll be able to have a more clear idea when the contract comes and it will also help me make a decision.\u201d
\nAfter losing his place in the Pakistan Test team in 2020 following a run of low scores, Asad has regularly featured in the domestic circuit and that too across all three formats.
\nThe right-handed batter has topped the run-scoring charts at the national level in the last three seasons and is currently leading Karachi Whites in the National T20 Cup.
\nAsad lamented how the 18-team tournament was scheduled in a way that it was hurting players. As many as four matches are being played on daily basis in the ongoing Super Eight stage of the tournament, which means teams are playing matches almost everyday.
\n\u201cThere are no gaps between the matches and players aren\u2019t getting enough time to rest, especially the fast bnowlers,\u201d said Asad.
\n\u201cWe played a match last night, reached home at midnight and we had a match the next afternoon. It doesn\u2019t help with recovery.\u201d
\nThe group stage of the tournament saw eight matches being played per day after the event had started not long after the preceding Pakistan Cup \u2014 the premier domestic List A tournament.
\n\u201cThe Pakistan Cup had ended just before that but if we got enough time to practice keeping in mind the T20 format, it would have been better,\u201d noted Asad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KARACHI Recently named one of the consultant members of the Wahab Riaz-led national selection committee, out-of-favour Pakistan international Asad Shafiq is still waiting for clarity over his new role. Asad was appointed in the position following the removal of former captain Salman Butt from the committee just a day after the latter\u2019s inclusion in it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-372567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n