Former Pakistan women's cricket team captain Sana Mir has blamed selectors for hampering with young batter Mohammad Haris' career who bats with intent. Of late, the likes of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have been criticised for their intent to score at a rapid rate and failure to adapt to modern-day cricket. Mir pointed out that Haris was not properly used and dropped from the format tailormade for him.
"Humare paas ek player hai Mohammad Haris. Intent ki baat hum pichle 5 saal se kar rahe hai. Wo ladka intent se khelta hai. Usko aap khila dete hai ODI me 4 number pe West Indies ke against. Usme unke failure hote hai, fir unko drop kar dete hai T20Is me. Aap incentive kya de rahe hai ek youngster ko intent se khelne ka kyuki end me selection to aapne averages pe karni hai. (We have a player, Mohammad Haris. We have been talking about intent [of batters] for past five years. That guy players with intent. You play him in ODIs at no.4 against West Indies. he fails and he gets dropped from T20Is. What is the incentive you are giving to a youngster to play with an intent if you are ending up selecting them on the basis of their averages?) Mir posed a question in a discussion involving Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik on Tampad's show 'Game on hai'.
Mir wants clarity for players' selection criteria
The 39-year-old wants selectors and team management to lay emphasis on the intent of a player. She pointed out how Haris was ignored and how fitness aspect of the game was not considered while picking the squad for the T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies. Pakistan ended up getting knocked out of group stage after losses to co-hosts USA and India.
"Player development tab hogi jab aap player ko bhi incentive doge. Idhar kaun khelega mulk ke liye? Aapko isko bhi clarity laani padegi. Us player ko aapne end me T20 World Cup [2024] se bahar karke, dusre wicketkeeper ko le gaye. Abhi bhi aapne kya kiya ki dusra wicketkeeper Usman Khan ko kar diya, Haseebullah kaha gaya? Chalo injuries bhi kuch hui hongi par development phase me incentive bhi us cheez pe rakhe jo aap develop karna chahte hai. Agar fitness aapka criteria hai to fir fitness nahi compromise honi chahiye. Pichle World Cup me humne wo bhi dekha. Fitness compromise karke aap players ko le gaye. (Player development will happen when you give incentive to a player. Who wants to play for the nation? You have to bring clarity. You dropped him just before the T20 World Cup 2024 and took another wicketkeeper [Azam Khan]. Now, you have kept Usman Khan as second wicketkeeper option. Where is Haseebullah? Well, there have been injuries but in the development phase you have to incentivise the department you want to develop. If your criteria is fitness than it should not be compromised upon? We saw that in previous [T20] World Cup as well. You compromised on fitness and took them [unfit players]) said the all-rounder who played 120 ODIs and 106 T20Is.
Haris has played six ODIs and scored 30 runs from five innings. In T20Is, he has scored 126 uruns from nine innings. His last T20I and ODI appearance was in April 2023 and September 2023 respectively.