Yousuf should be made captain for Australian tour: Qadir

Karachi:

Former Test leg-spinner and chief selector Abdul Qadir wants the Pakistan Cricket Board to appoint acting skipper Muhammad Yousuf as the captain for the entire Australia tour without wasting anymore time.

Qadir said he was happy to see Pakistan win the second Test against New Zealand by a big margin in Wellington under Yousuf's captaincy.

Yousuf was made captain for just the Test series in New Zealand after Younis Khan stepped down and pulled out of the tour to New Zealand after losing the one-day series to the blackcaps in Abu Dhabi last month.

There is little chance of Younis making the tour to Australia as he has neither informed the cricket board or the national selectors about his availability for the tour the squad for which would be announced later this week.

Qadir pointed out that since Yousuf was the senior most player of the side he had the respect of the players and the board should announce him as captain for the Australian tour.

"Even if Younis is available I don't think this is the right time to push him into the captaincy. It would be better if he played as a senior batsman and first got his form back and didn't take on captaincy pressures," Qadir said.

Qadir said Younis should have gone to New Zealand as a player and should also be going to Australia.

"I don't know what is going on in his mind but he is a top class player and the team requires his services I would like to see to him playing in Australia," he said.

The former leg-spinner who resigned as chief selector during the T20 World Cup after differences with the board said Pakistan's biggest advantage was that it had a world class bowling line-up.

"If our batsmen show more consistency in form we can beat any side in the world and I think Yousuf is the right man to lead the side now," he said.

Well placed sources said that Yousuf had already accepted that Younis would not be playing in Australia and he had asked the team management to ask the selectors to make some changes in the side that goes from New Zealand to Australia.

"Obviously being the captain he has every right to have some players of his choice and confidence in the team. His request would be considered when the chief selector meets with Chairman of the board, Ejaz Butt this week," the source said.