"Favoritism won't help you build a team for the World Cup"- Danish Kaneria slams Pakistan's team selection
Former Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria compared India's bench strength to that of Pakistan. He credited the Men in Blue for giving ample opportunities to the likes of Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul as wicketkeepers, especially after Rishabh Pant's horrific car accident.
While Pant may miss out on the ODI World Cup later this year, Kaneria feels the Men in Blue will already have quality backups ready. However, he feels the same can't be said about Pakistan because of their unwillingness to rotate the squad and give fresh faces consistent opportunities.
In a video on his YouTube channel, here's what Danish Kaneria had to say:
"India know that Rishabh Pant may not be available for the World Cup and so they're grooming Ishan Kishan as a backup for KL Rahul as wicketkeeper. But what are we doing? We are having just Rizwan and not giving any exposure to Mohammad Haris. Favoritism won't help you build a team for the World Cup."
Danish Kaneria questions quality of pitches in Pakistan
Danish Kaneria also slammed the benign pitches that were dished out by Pakistan at the National Stadium in Karachi during the Test series as well as the ODI series against New Zealand.
He compared those pitches to the ones in India as the latter had even pace and bounce. Kaneria feels such competitive pitches lead to close games and attract more crowds. On this, he stated:
"When you give lively wickets, irrespective of the result, the opposition also enjoys pace and bounce and then you see crowds filling up the stadium. But in Pakistan we didn't see the National Stadium filled even one day. This is the fault of the curators as well as PCB who prepared dead wickets. Pakistan bowlers had nothing to play with. People want to come to stadiums but then there's no entertainment at all."
The Men in Blue may look to ring in a few changes to their playing XI with the third ODI effectively being a dead rubber.