Heartbroken by ill PCB treatment, Pakistan Test player defects to England and eyes playing for them soon

Dismayed by the ill treatment at the hands of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), a Test cricketer from the country has decided to defect and represent another country. In this case, it’s England.

The story of 31-year-old left-arm spinner Zafar Gohar is nothing short of heartbreaking. He represented Pakistan in one ODI against England back in the day in 2015. He was just 19 years old then. He must have been a prodigy! In that match, which Pakistan lost at Sharjah, he removed big names like Alex Hales and Joe Root, but he didn’t play another ODI again.

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Six years later in 2021, he was called back for a Test match against New Zealand at Christchurch. In the only innings he bowled, he went wicketless and gave away more than 150 runs. In a match that his team lost by an innings, he, however, batted well with scores of 34 and 37. But just like the previous time, that was it.

"I remember Misbah-ul-Haq coming to me before the Test match saying, we don't have enough seam allrounders, so you're going to bat at No. 8, and if we need it, you'll bowl a couple of overs. I remember playing that Test match, I got like 34 and 37 in each innings. And, yeah, never really had any communication after that,” Gohar, who represents English county Middlesex at present and has British Citizenship now, told ESPNcricinfo.

Gohar then tore into the PCB. The Pakistani board often gets that from its players. "I didn't really get the chances I deserved in Pakistan. I took nearly 50 wickets for Gloucestershire [in 2022] and almost 500 runs with the bat as well, and when I went back to Pakistan, I got two more five-fors in three games.

“But, after that, one of the selectors said: 'It doesn't matter what you do in county cricket. We don't really recognise those performances’. And that's when I realised there's no point. I decided to try something else where I could at least do everything I could to get my chance," he said.

But now it's England Gohar is eyeing!

But Gohar has not given up. He joined Middlesex from Gloucestershire last season and has since gone from strength to strength. His batting appears to have come a long way. In his last innings in county cricket earlier this month, he scored an important 84 against Northamptonshire.

It’s common knowledge now that the English selectors over the years have preferred bowling all-rounders. Gohar was aware of that and said, "If the chance comes anytime, I'll be ready."

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