On Sunday, December 12, Pakistani batter Asad Shafiq announced his retirement from the game after guiding the Karachi Whites to the National T20 Championship championship.
Asad Shafiq colleagues presented him with a guard of honor as he took his final bow as a professional cricket player. The 37-year-old is expected to join the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) selection panel, which is chaired by Wahab Riaz, once he retires.
India Today cited Asad Shafiq as stating, “I have the contract from the board and I am looking at it and hopefully it will be processed soon.”
Pakistan’s performance in the just-finished ODI World Cup 2023 wasn’t very good. Following their failure to advance to the semi-finals, Pakistani cricket has undergone several adjustments in the hopes of bringing back one of the most illustrious international teams in history. Given that Shafiq has seen the majority of the players in the nation up close, his involvement on the selection panel might be advantageous for the “Men in Green.”
Asad Shafiq played three seasons of domestic cricket after the final Test match of 2020, attempting to earn a return to the team. But he disclosed that he had already decided to retire before this season even started.
“Yes, I continued to play domestic cricket for three years after being dropped from the Pakistan squad in 2020 in the hopes of being given another opportunity. However, I had already made the decision before the season began that this would be my last one because, at 38, I believed it was time to retire rather than listen to others’ demands to stand down, as Asad Shafiq stated.
In 77 Test matches, the right-handed batsman amassed 4,660 runs at an average of 38.20. Despite playing 60 ODIs and 10 T20Is in the white-ball form, he was unable to achieve any success. One of the players that helped Pakistan get over the turbulent period that followed the major spot-fixing incident in 2010 was Shafiq.
It was a particularly trying period for Pakistani cricket after the 2010 spot-fixing incident, and he said, “I’m glad I was a part of the process where we won back the public’s trust in our team.”