Pakistani Twitter has strongly reacted after Pakistani pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi has not been named among the nominees for ICC ‘Test Player of the Year’.
India’s spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, England skipper Joe Root, New Zealand’s all-rounder Kylie Jamieson and Sri Lanka’s Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne have been nominated for the award on Tuesday.
Shaheen was the second highest wicket-taker in Test cricket, during 2021, with 47 wickets in 9 matches at an average of 17.06.
Interestingly, the ICC decided to include New Zealand’s pacer Kyle Jamieson, who had bagged fewer wickets than Shaheen, in the list. The right-armer bagged 27 wickets in five matches.
Explaining their decision, the ICC said, in a statement, that “in New Zealand’s finest hour, as they celebrated their ICC World Test Championship victory, Jamieson was the player who made the difference”.
“Away from the seam-friendly pitches of New Zealand and England, Jamieson also impressed on the flat decks in India, getting the ball to shape beautifully,” the statement added.
However, Twitter users were not happy with ICC’s decision to pick Jamieson over Shaheen.
Some of the netizens were even questioning Hassan Ali’s exclusion from the nominees as the star Pakistani speedster has grabbed 41 wickets in 8 matches at an average of 16.07 which include five, 5 wicket-hauls and one 10 wicket-hauls.
