Shaheen Afridi will not be in the second Test team

Pakistan started the Test series with a loss against Bangladesh. It was their first Test loss against the Tigers. So Shan Masood's team now faces the challenge of saving the series before the second Test. Star pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi is not in the announced Pakistan team for that match. Pakistan's Test coach Jason Gillespie has explained why he is not in the team.

Tomorrow (Friday) Bangladesh-Pakistan will face each other in the second and final Test of the series in Rawalpindi. Pakistan has announced a reshuffled 12-member squad for the match. The hosts fielded a team without a specialist spinner in the first Test in Rawalpindi. Shaheen Afridi became the father of a child during the first Test. He was supposed not to play in the second Test. The hosts have prepared the team for the second test without him.

However, Gillespie said the reason for Shaheen's absence from the team is beyond that personal matter. He said in the press conference, "Shahin is not staying in this match. I have spoken to him, knowing the reason behind this decision he supports it. We want to play the match with our best combination and that is our directive. We will look at the conditions in the morning and decide the bowling attack. Times are different for Shaheen, he is a new father. He is a member of our three-format team, and now I have given him the opportunity to spend time with his family.

After that, this former Australian star pacer also highlighted some of Shaheen's professional issues. "He has to make sure that he is fit enough," he said. Working with Azhar Mahmood (bowling coach) on this is great. We want to see Shaheen at his best as we have a lot of games ahead of us in all three formats and hopefully he will play a key role there. At the moment we think all the positions are complete for that particular match.''

Praising Pakistan's Test captain Shan Masood, Gillespie said, 'Shaan is a very positive captain and we will all play to win. We showed our mentality in the first match as well. We declared the innings in the first innings because we wanted the opposition team to bat as well. But it didn't work much, full credit to the opponent (Bangladesh). They batted very well. Now we look forward to win the next match. I am confident that we will always take a positive approach towards achieving success.'

Incidentally, Shahin Afridi became the father of a son in the middle of the first Test. Although he was in the team at that time, he could not be with his wife Ansha Afridi. The name of Afridi and Ansha's first child was already decided. Aliyar Shaheen Afridi named his first child accordingly. Earlier Shaheen-Ansha got married in February 2023. This pacer took 2 wickets for 88 runs in 30 overs against Bangladesh in the first innings.