Pakistan chief selector breaks silence on Mohammad Amir's future

Over the past couple of years, Mohammad Amir has not been considered for selection for Pakistan. The left-arm pacer made his last international appearance in August 2020 during a T20I against England; a few months later, he had announced his international retirement and made himself unavailable for selection. However, Amir had insisted at the time that he would be available for consideration when then-PCB management ends its tenure.

It has been over a year since the change in the management, but Amir is yet to make a return to the side. Earlier this week, the PCB chief selector Muhammad Wasim was asked about the future of the star pacer, following which he finally broke silence about Amir.

Wasim revealed that Amir has "taken retirement" from international cricket, and thus, he couldn't be considered.

"My work is to select from players who are available for selection. Unfortunately, Mohammad Amir never made himself available in my tenure. He has taken retirement, so I never talked about him. When he is not available, what can I say. The rest, who are available, we do talk about them and consider them. But there is no such policy," Wasim said on Pakistan journalist Hafiz Muhammad Imran's channel.

Last month, Mohammad Amir drew severe backlash from fans when he tweeted 'chief selector ki cheap selection' after Pakistan's T20 World Cup squad was announced. The tweet was a direct dig at Muhammad Wasim as Amir was excluded from the 15-member squad.

Pakistan will return to action in the T20I tri-series featuring New Zealand and Bangladesh, which begins on 7  October. The Babar Azam-led side would be aiming at improving its performances in the middle-order after the batters failed to step up in the seven-match T20I series against England, which Pakistan lost 3-4.

The side begins its T20 World Cup campaign against arch-rivals India on 23 October.