Misbah 'strongly' opposed Farhat's inclusion in Zimbabwe Test squad

Pakistan Test and one-day captain Misbah-ul Haq reportedly had a disagreement with the selection committee over the choice of Imran Farhat for the two Test matches in the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe.

According to the Express Tribune, Farhat's selection has often been branded a case of partiality because of his close relationship with former Test cricketer and chief selector Mohammad Ilyas.

However, the opening batsman has dismissed the notion, saying that he always made his place in the national team on merit.

An official said that Misbah had strongly opposed Farhat's inclusion for the Zimbabwe tour as he was not happy with the performance of the left-handed opener, who failed miserably in the ICC Champions Trophy, before being dropped for the last match.

The official further said that Misbah instead wanted to retain Taufeeq Umar in the Test squad, saying that Umar was more reliable as an opener in Tests on the basis of his performance in 2011.

Although Umar was the first choice for the Test series against South Africa earlier this year, the report said that he returned without playing a match after suffering an injury and was replaced by Farhat who scored 73 in that tour as compared to Umar's lone 50 in the three-match Test series against Sri Lanka last year.

Defending Farhat's selection, the official also said that Umar has been struggling for a while in Tests as well as at domestic level while Farhat has shown a better performance than him in domestic cricket and also scored a triple century in the last domestic season.

The official mentioned that for that reason, the selectors have included Farhat in the squad as they felt that they have no grounds to drop the opener in Tests even though he may have failed in the ODIs.

The left-handed Farhat started his career in 2001 but never cemented his place in the team; he has played in just 53 ODIs and 40 Tests, the report added.