I’ve just spoken to Yasir Arafat by telephone. Naturally Yasir was overjoyed at receiving the call from the selectors for the one day squad versus Sri Lanka. When Yasir received the call from the selectors today he was on his way to Lahore with his KRL team mates for their next Quaid e Azam Trophy fixture.  After receiving the call he had to do an “about turn” to Rawalpindi so that he can catch a flight to Karachi for the training camp ahead of the one day series versus Muralitharan and company.

 

He felt that all the hard work he has put in recently has really paid off - all those extra hours in the gym, all the extra hours in the nets, all the extra laps around the pitch whilst his team mates relaxed and all the slight technical changes had contributed to his recall to the one day side.

 

He also felt that he had looked at certain areas of his game that he felt he needed to improve in and has made slight adjustments to his batting stance and bowling action all of which had contributed to his good performances of late. These changes may not be noticeable but are ever so slight alterations that have improved his confidence.

 

Yasir hopes that he’ll be given a decent chance against the Sri Lankans and that he can perform to the best of his ability and therefore establish himself as a regular in the Pakistan team.

 

He felt that the icing on the cake was the 11 wicket haul in the last match in the Quaid e Azam Trophy fixture and it was a timely reminder to the selectors. “The ball just seemed to be coming out of my hand perfectly in the last match” said Yasir.

 

Yasir also reminded me that ever since we met last year he’s been a regular reader of PakPassion and logs on when he can – so careful what you all write about Yasir J

 

We’ll hopefully catch up again with Yasir after the one day series.