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Oman coach Duleep Mendis praised Munis Ansari after the fast bowler took a career-best 5 for 27 in a 58-run victory over Jersey at WCL Division Five on Monday, calling him a ‘unique’ player for his game-changing ability.”We are fortunate to have a person like Munis Ansari,” Mendis told ESPNcricinfo after Oman’s win at St Saviour. “This is not the first time that he came and got the breakthrough for us. Even in the qualifiers for the World Cup, he got the breakthrough for us in so many matches and we have a lot of faith in him. He’s a unique bowler.”First, I think he’s unique because of that square-arm action and then because of the speed that he has and the control that he has. More than anything he can control and he can bowl the yorker anytime that he wants.”After taking two wickets in his first five-over spell, Ansari returned for a second five-over spell and sparked a drastic collapse, with three more wickets, sending Jersey from 143 for 5 to 147 all out. Four of Ansari’s five wickets were clean bowled, all of them via yorkers, with the slingy pacer on a hat-trick at one point in his second spell and Mendis said his ability to routinely target the base of the stumps in the latter stages of an innings made him a consistent threat.”He’s been practicing quite a lot,” Mendis said. “He had a chat with Lasith Malinga when he met him in the World Cup and he’s improving every day. Now it has come to a stage where whenever you tell him to bowl a few yorkers, he would be able to come and do it at will.”Prior to Monday, Ansari had taken four wickets in an innings on three separate occasions for Oman since making his debut at 2013 ICC WCL Division Three in Bermuda. In that tournament, he claimed 4 for 72 in a win against Italy and the following year took 4 for 43 in a loss to UAE. He also ripped through Netherlands in a brilliant death spell at the World T20 Qualifier in Scotland with 4 for 15 to send Netherlands from 134 for 5 to 135 all out, setting up a six-wicket win.Mendis also praised Ansari for shouldering extra responsibility with Oman unable to pick what Mendis felt was their best bowling attack due to rules restrictions at Division Five. According to the tournament rules, players who are residents for more than four years but not yet seven years are eligible to compete but only two such players can be in any starting XI.That particular criteria did not apply at the World T20 in India, which allowed them to play left-arm quick Bilal Khan in every game. However, Bilal has had to stay on the bench for the last two games with Oman opting to play an extra batsman in Noorul Riaz instead after Bilal claimed 0 for 13 in three overs during the first encounter against Jersey at Division Five on Saturday.”With Ansari there are two other medium pacers. One is Raju [Ranpura] and he is bowling well. Unfortunately we can’t have the other left-arm seamer bowling in the match because of the qualifying rule that we have about the four-year and seven-year [players]. It is unfortunate because he is a very good fast bowler, about 135-140 [kph]. But unfortunately we cannot play him unless we take another four-year player out of the team.”Mendis said that although the team is 2-0, he still felt there is plenty of room for improvement heading into the team’s three remaining group stage games against Vanuatu, Tanzania and Guernsey. Outside of Zeeshan Maqsood’s 69 made at the top of the order against Jersey, the top order has not contributed much in the tournament and Mendis said they need to start pulling their weight.”The batting has to come right,” Mendis said. “The middle and lower middle-order is getting runs but not the top order. I would like to see the top order getting runs. Unfortunately that is not happening. The lower middle-order is the one saving the side.”I would like to get the spinners bowling a much tighter line backed up with better fielding. I think the fielding was well below the mark today but it should pick up because they are a better fielding side than what they performed today.”

ScorecardJacques Rudolph led the way for Glamorgan•Getty Images

Skipper Jacques Rudolph held Glamorgan’s batting together with an unbeaten half-century on an attritional first day in their Specsavers County Championship match against Sussex.A slow Hove pitch which encouraged Sussex to play legspinner Will Beer for the first time in a four-day match for nearly three years proved hard work for stroke players but Rudolph defied a persistent attack to reach 76 at stumps with Glamorgan on 291 for 7, having won the toss.Earlier, Australian Nick Selman had made his maiden Championship fifty in only his second appearance while Beer had reason to celebrate too when he picked up his first wicket in the competition at Hove, eight years after making his debut for the county.But it proved to be a day suited to someone with Rudolph’s phlegmatic temperament. The South African hardly played a false shot in more than three-and-a-half hours at the crease. So far he has faced 168 balls and hit eight fours.Sussex kept plugging away and they clearly enjoyed Beer’s big moment when he ended a stand of 61 for the fourth wicket between Aneurin Donald and Rudolph by bowling Donald (29) off an inside edge as he shaped to cut in what is only Beer’s tenth first-class match.Selman had earlier shared stands of 41 with Mark Wallace (20) and 65 with Will Bragg (29) as Sussex enjoyed just one success before lunch when Wallace was squared up by Stuart Whittingham and edged behind.Selman was dropped on 25 by Whittingham as he dived forward at long leg but after lunch Whittingham defeated Selman’s forward push with a nip-backer after he’d made 52 (109 balls, 6 fours) before Bragg was smartly taken at second slip by Chris Nash.Sussex employed four spinners and the quartet bowled a third of their overs but it was their seamers who made further inroads when they took the new ball.Steve Magoffin took his second wicket with his first delivery with it as David Lloyd was lbw playing down the wrong line after contributing 37 to a fifth wicket stand of 69 in 23 overs with Rudolph.Ajmal Shahzad picked up belated reward when Graham Wagg (7) edged a drive to slip before Craig Meschede top-edged a hook off Magoffin and was caught at second slip for a duck. But debutant Owen Thomas hooked Magoffin for six in his unbeaten 15 as Glamorgan avoided further loss before the close.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSean Williams’ maiden Test century could not prevent Zimbabwe from crashing to defeat in the first match against New Zealand but it helped cushion the heavy innings loss. Williams, who took over after Craig Ervine reached his first fifty in the format, put on 118 for the seventh wicket with captain Graeme Cremer and the pair spent 33.2 overs together to frustrate New Zealand. Williams went on to hold the visitors at bay until 25 minutes before the tea break but once he was dismissed, Zimbabwe could not prevent the inevitable.New Zealand’s attack were kept on the field for longer than they may have expected, after they had Zimbabwe reeling at 17 for 4 and plucked a fifth scalp on the third evening. But the middle and lower order applied themselves well against swing from Tim Southee and Trent Boult, a short-ball barrage from Neil Wagner and spin from Ish Sodhi and Michael Santner, and took their innings deep to show improvement after their first-innings implosion.Zimbabwe began the final day with some momentum after Ervine resumed from an overnight score of 49. He reached his fifty off the second ball of the day but then played inside the line of a delivery from Boult and was given out caught behind by debutant umpire Michael Gough. Replays showed Ervine had not hit the ball and the noise was likely bat-pad.He was replaced by Williams, who got a rough decision in the first innings when he was caught off the helmet. Now battling flu, Williams, who wasn’t on the field for New Zealand’s innings, put his illness aside to play an authoritative knock, the most assured of his three-Test career.He began with a quartet of crisp drives off Southee and one off Boult, whose pace stayed in the upper 120s throughout the match. Kane Williamson tried to clog up his scoring area with two slips, two gullies, two short covers and a backward point but Williams was wise to the trick and responded with shots in the vacant leg side.With Southee and Boult unable to dislodge Williams, Williamson turned to first-innings hero Neil Wagner and gave him a license to attack. Wagner hit Cremer on the thigh pad, the left shoulder and eventually the left fore-arm, which Cremer broke earlier this year. The Zimbabwe captain, as he did with ball in hand, fought through it all.While Cremer content to hold his end, Williams profited off the short ball and brought out an audacious range of strokes, including a cheeky ramp off Wagner and sweetly timed sweeps. He used his feet, scored quickly, with his fifty coming off 63 balls, and found the boundary often – 11 times in the fifty and 21 in his entire innings.Williams took his partnership with Cremer to 100 runs with a straight dive and put himself into the nineties with a cut. His captain was not around to usher him to the century. Cremer was given out lbw by umpire Paul Reiffel to a Sodhi legbreak that hit him above the pad. The height made the decision questionable but Cremer had to go.Instead, Williams’ fellow sick-bed mate Regis Chakabva, whose tonsillitis meant he could not field, was at the other end when he outside edged a wrong ‘un to third man to bring up the fastest hundred by a Zimbabwean in Tests. Williams faced just 106 balls, one less than Neil Johnson.Although clearly affected by exertion after his illness, Williams did not let the landmark distract him from keeping Zimbabwe fighting for as long as possible. He watched as Chakabva was bowled around the legs by Tim Southee with the old ball, but then holed out to deep mid-wicket off Santner to end a courageous knock. Donald Tiripano was left to deal with the last rites, which came when he nicked off, with Zimbabwe five runs short of 300

Mohammad Amir and legspinner Yasir Shah have been rested for Pakistan’s second warm-up match against Sussex ahead of the opening Test against England at Lord’s.Both bowlers impressed against Somerset at Taunton, Amir taking 3 for 36 in the first innings with some dangerous swing at good pace while Yasir enjoyed a lengthy bowl in the second innings as he finished with 4 for 107.Rahat Ali has also been left out as Pakistan bring in Wahab Riaz, Imran Khan and Zulfiqar Babar.The batting, though, remains unchanged which, barring injuries, confirms the top-order line-up for the opening Test. Most of the batsmen spent decent time in the middle against Somerset, although Mohammad Hafeez (20 and 10), captain Misbah-ul-Haq (0 and 19) and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed will hope for a more productive outing at Hove.”We had a pretty decent outing against Somerset. I would expect everyone shall maintain and improve on standards on display at Taunton in batting, bowling and fielding,” Mickey Arthur, the head coach, said. “We have to keep up with the benchmarks we have achieved so far, with the same intensity. Slacking off at any point would not be acceptable”.

Durham fast bowler Mark Wood has been recalled by England for the one-day series against Pakistan. His county team-mate Ben Stokes has also been included in the 15-man squad after a calf injury curtailed his Test series against Pakistan, following a knee problem earlier in the season against Sri Lanka which had required surgery. James Vince, however, has been dropped.This is the first squad Wood has been included in since injury ended his tour of the UAE last year, after which he underwent ankle surgery which kept him out of action until last month. He takes the place of Steven Finn, who picked up a hamstring injury on the fourth day at The Oval and has been ruled out for four weeks.Both captain Eoin Morgan (chipped bone in finger) and Jos Buttler (fractured thumb) are expected to be able to start the series following their recent injuries. However, while Stokes has been included, he is likely to start the series playing as a batsman only, before gradually being re-introduced as a bowler.

England ODI squad v Pakistan

Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Liam Dawson, Chris Jordan, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

“Ben’s made really significant progress over the last three weeks and our medical team are pleased,” James Whitaker, the national selector said. “He’s progressing nicely towards bowling over the next week or so, and while we hope that initially he might just play as a batter he will lead into the series as an allrounder eventually.”He’s worked really hard on his rehab and it’s given everyone a lot of confidence. To have him around again will be a huge bonus for Eoin Morgan and his team.”Mark Wood has had a couple of operations, and with his hard work and advice from our medical team he’s now able to take part in this series. Just over the last month he’s progressed very well and we’re very happy for him. We got him back into the Lions initially, he’d just played a couple of games for Durham before, and he played really well for the Lions and he’s continued that form since.”Vince’s omission means he can return to four-day cricket with Hampshire in a bid to regain form and push for a touring spot to Bangladesh and India. He finished the Test series against Pakistan with 1 and 0 at The Oval and in seven Tests this season did not manage to pass fifty, while the familiarity of his dismissals – edging behind to the keeper or slips – became a concern.There is better news for another Hampshire player, however, with Liam Dawson handed an ODI call-up. Dawson, the left-arm spin-bowling allrounder, took 3 for 27 on his T20I debut earlier in the season against Sri Lanka and he provides a third spin option alongside Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.”He came into the squad for that one-off game and really impressed,” Whitaker said. “He’d previously impressed the coaches on the Performance Programme in the winter, and over the last two years he’s been very consistent for Hampshire. So it’s good for him and I’m really pleased he might get a go.”The selectors have resisted resting any players after the Test series meaning that Chris Woakes, who was Man of the Series, and Joe Root are both included. That also means there are no places for the batsmen who impressed recently for England Lions in the triangular series against Pakistan A and Sri Lanka A.Ben Duckett, the Northamptonshire left-hander, had been tipped for a maiden call-up after making unbeaten scores of 220 and 163 in the tri-series while Sam Billings, the Kent wicketkeeper-batsman who has already featured for the full side, plunder 175 against Pakistan ADawid Malan, who captained the Lions, was another to impress with an unbeaten 185 against Sri Lanka A. He was part of England’s T20 squad against Sri Lanka earlier in the season and along with Duckett and Billings has a good chance of being involved for the T20 against Pakistan next month. The squad for that will be named towards the end of August.”Players like Ben Duckett, Sam Billings and Dawid Malan have all been performing very well in the Lions – and James Vince, although he’s not in this squad, remains in our plans. So there’s three or four players there pushing for batting spots – I think that’s incredibly healthy for English cricket,” Whitaker said. “We’ve had a lot of confidence come out of our one-day team over the last 18 months, and this selection just emphasises how well they’ve done.”

The Lodha Committee has withdrawn its recommendation to the BCCI to have nominees of two franchises sit on the IPL Governing Council on a rotational basis.The motive behind the recommendation, the Committee had noted in its report, released in January, was to bring more independent voices into the Governing Council. The BCCI, however, had objected, saying having the franchises on the governing council would lead to conflict of interest considering the panel takes influential decisions related to the teams, players and match officials.In its seminal judgement delivered on July 18, the two-judge bench of the Supreme Court had made it binding upon the BCCI to implement virtually all the recommendations laid down by the Lodha Committee to enhance the governance structure both at the board and the state associations.With regards to the proposal to bring in franchises on the IPL Governing Council , the court observed there was “evident conflict of interest between the nominees of the IPL franchisees on the one hand and their role as members of the Governing Council on the other”.The Lodha Committee had proposed that the IPL Governing Council comprise nine members: three ex-officio members (the BCCI secretary, treasurer, and CEO), two representatives of the members of BCCI to be elected by the General Body, two nominees of the franchises, one nominee who is the Comptroller and Auditor General’s representative on the Apex Council (the proposed body that would replace the Working Committee, the BCCI’s highest decision-making body), and one nominee from the players’ association. It was recommended that the nominees of the franchises rotate annually.In its original report released on January 4, the Lodha Committee had noted that the governance of the IPL left a lot to be desired. The three-member committee, comprising RM Lodha, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court, and justices Ashok Bhan and RV Raveendran, former judges in the Supreme Court, had said the franchise were denied a say in the governance of the league despite being responsible “for fostering competition and making revenue”.During its meeting on August 28 in Delhi, the Lodha Committee revisited the issue and after deliberations decided to amend the recommendation.”The Committee was initially of the view that if a question arose that were to be determined by the IPL Governing Council where the presence of a franchisee nominee would lead to a potential conflict of interest, then a reference could be made under Rule 38 (3) to determine whether the conflict was tractable, in which situation the conflict could be resolved by the recusal of the person concerned,” the Committee said in a supplementary report from Sunday’s meeting.”However, when the question of the autonomy and independence within the Governing Council was considered, it was noted that apart from the CEO who is an ex-officio member, the presence of the Players’ representative and the nominee of the Comptroller & Auditor General would more than satisfy the requirement of the ‘independent oversight within the Governing Council.”Therefore, to avoid any complaint or doubt about the presence of franchisees’ representatives leading to conflict of interest situations, this Committee is of the view that: the recommendation to have Franchisee representatives on the IPL Governing Council be treated as withdrawn.”

R Ashwin’s career-best match haul of 13 for 140 against New Zealand in the Indore Test has propelled him back to the top of the ICC Test rankings for bowlers. Ashwin had earlier briefly held the position in July, before being overtaken by Dale Steyn and James Anderson.Ashwin picked up 6 for 81 in the first innings and followed it up with 7 for 59 to achieve a career-best rating of 900 points. He joined an elite club of bowlers to have attained 900 ratings points since 2000; Muttiah Muralitharan, Glenn McGrath, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn and Shaun Pollock being the others.Ashwin is now trailed by Steyn, with 878 points, and Anderson on 870. While Steyn’s next Test will be in Australia starting November 3, Anderson is aiming to be fit for the India tour, as he is missing the Bangladesh Tests. Ashwin has a good chance to retain the top spot until the end of the year, with India in the midst of a lengthy home season. If he does so, it will mark the second year in succession that Ashwin closes out the calendar year as the No. 1-ranked Test bowler. Ashwin also leads the allrounders’ table, while team-mate Ravindra Jadeja surged to a career-best third, joint Moeen Ali.Among batsmen, Ajinkya Rahane’s innings of 188 and 23 not out in Indore helped him rise to a career-best sixth position, making him the only Indian batsman in the top 10.

There are batsmen who go their entire careers without hitting the winning runs in a Test, so for Peter Handscomb to have had the pleasure in Adelaide made his debut all the more memorable. Even more remarkable was the fact that another debutant – opener Matt Renshaw – was at the other end.Only once before in Test history had two debutants been at the crease when the winning runs were struck in a Test, and that occurred in 1880 in the fourth Test match ever played. To give some context to the drought, Adelaide was the 2236th Test ever played. Combined with Handscomb’s first-innings 54, it meant his was a particularly unforgettable debut.”It was a nice little script out there,” Handscomb said on Tuesday. “I was kind of hoping I didn’t have to bat in that second innings, or at least that Matty Renshaw would hit the two runs that were needed and I could just sit on my bat. But it was nice to be out there, and with Matty as well in his first game, it was pretty cool.”Handscomb, Renshaw and Nic Maddinson all made their debuts in Australia’s win over South Africa, and were among the five changes to a radically overhauled side following the loss of the series in Hobart. And while there were runs for both Handscomb and Renshaw, Maddinson is still waiting for his first scoring shot in a Test, having been bowled by Kagiso Rabada for a 12-ball duck.”He’s fine, he’s a resilient player who knows his own game and he’s just a great bloke,” Handscomb said. “If you get a good ball you’re happy to go out to it – bowlers are allowed to bowl good balls. He’s fine. He’s still feeling good, and if he gets another opportunity I daresay he’ll come out and whack them.”Handscomb was speaking at the MCG, where his Victoria team-mates were moving towards a five-wicket Sheffield Shield victory over South Australia on the final day. And while Australia’s ODI players now squeeze a three-match Chappell-Hadlee campaign into their gap between Test series, Handscomb is expected to play for Victoria in next week’s Shield game against Tasmania in Hobart.That red-ball game will be his final preparation for the first Test against Pakistan at the Gabba, a day-night pink-ball affair starting on December 15. And while Handscomb entered his Test debut with a strong record at Adelaide Oval – he had 479 first-class runs there at 68.42 – his figures at the Gabba are less impressive. In five first-class games there, he has 189 runs at 21.00.”I’ve never batted at the Gabba with the pink ball under lights,” he said. “It will be a whole new feeling. We’ll just have to wait and see, I think.”Handscomb’s unusual method of batting extremely deep in his crease worked to good effect for him at Adelaide, where he was able to play the ball late and was particularly strong when cutting. His deep stance also appeared to upset the lengths of the South African bowlers, and he said it was a method that he had developed in the past couple of seasons.”Batting deep in the crease came because I like to play off the back foot as much as I can, so the deeper I am the more chance the ball is going to be at a shorter length,” he said. “But also, mate, bowlers are fast. These guys can bowl some good clicks.”The deeper I am, the longer I get to see the ball and react to it off the wicket or react to it in the air. It’s just something that I developed a couple of years ago with [former Victoria coach] Greg Shipperd and since then it’s all gone pretty well.”Handscomb’s promising start in Test cricket should ensure he gets a decent run in Australia’s middle order, even if the batting line-up is rejigged to accommodate Shaun Marsh, who missed out in Hobart and Adelaide due to injury. There is a strong likelihood that Handscomb will be part of the XI for the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan, which, as for all Victoria players, would be a dream come true.”The thought has crossed my mind,” he said. “Hopefully I can get there first, get selected, and if I get the opportunity to come out here in front of a Boxing Day crowd, I’ll be pretty stoked. Hopefully it happens. I was just about to put my order in for a few Boxing Day Test tickets, so I might just hold off on that.”

England have confirmed that Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes will return to the side for the third Test against India starting in Mohali on Saturday. Buttler comes in for Ben Duckett, who has been dropped, while Woakes replaces the injured Stuart Broad.For Buttler it will be just his second first-class match since being dropped from the Test side against Pakistan in the UAE last year. He played once for Lancashire towards the end of 2016 season, having had plans to play Championship cricket earlier in the summer ended by a broken thumb.”Jos is an extremely talented cricketer and we’ve all seen that in the one-day and Twenty20 format,” Alastair Cook, the England captain, said. “He’s right up there with the best short-form players in the world and he’s earned an opportunity to come and play here.”It’s clearly not ideal because of circumstances and he hasn’t played a lot of red-ball cricket but sometimes when the pressure’s off and you just go out and play you can do something special.Cook also said that using Buttler as wicketkeeper, and Jonny Bairstow as a specialist batsman after what has been a prolific year, was not discussed. “There was no temptation to give Jos the gloves back,” he said. “I think Jonny’s been outstanding and has settled in that role and done very well.”But he had a glint in his eye when I said we’d like you to move up to five. It gives him more chance to bat. He bats at five and keeps at Yorkshire so he’s used to that role.”Virat Kohli, the India captain, said he was surprised it had taken so long for England to bring Buttler back. “I was actually quite surprised to see him being left out after a couple of bad runs. I think he’s a very talented player and can do really well for England.”One advantage that Buttler has over most of his team-mates is in having played at Mohali already this year, during his IPL stint with Mumbai Indians. But the suggestion that Buttler has “earned” his recall will raise some eyebrows. While Buttler’s record in limited-overs cricket is very good – he is rated No. 12 in the official ICC ODI rankings and 20th in the T20I rankings – and his work ethic around the squad is excellent, he has hardly had an opportunity to push for a return in red-ball cricket.He has not been able to prove that he has learned to build an innings or deal with some of the issues that saw him lose form. Buttler hasn’t so much earned his recall as won it by default, with Duckett and Gary Ballance having been dropped.That raises questions about the balance of the squad on this section of the tour. The England camp were not committed to retaining the same squad from Bangladesh here so if they had come to a decision not to pick Ballance – and it appears they had – in India, it might have made sense to call up another player in his place.Quite who that might have been is debatable. While England would love a player of Ian Bell’s talent and experience to have scored enough runs to justify his recall, it is hard to argue that he did.Asked whether reinforcements might be called up before the final two Tests of the series, Cook replied: “I don’t think that will happen.”Cook also had warm words for Broad, who produced an exceptional spell on the fourth morning in Visakhapatnam despite a foot injury. “You wouldn’t know that his foot was as bad as it was,” Cook said. “But the specialist’s advice is that there is a risk of it going totally and he would then be out for a period of time”They were quite surprised how well he got through those four-and-a-half days after doing it in the third or fourth over of the match. If he played here and did more damage to the tendon in the second over then you’d look stupid.”Describing the decision to drop Duckett as “a blip” in a promising young player’s career, Cook expressed confidence in his long-term future.”Ben won’t be the only good player who has been dropped,” he said. “He has an England future, there’s no doubt about it, because he’s a very talented guy with a lot ahead of him.”When I chatted to him he said he thought he was a pretty decent player of spin. And he is. But he just has an issue which unfortunately has been found out quite quickly which can happen in this part of the world in international cricket.”He can go and address that and come again because he’s a very talented and exciting cricketer in all three forms. It’s just a blip in his career. He will have to work at his game, but he isn’t the first person who has to do that and he won’t be the last.”Cook also confirmed that Zafar Ansari was not fit for selection but delayed naming a full side until he had taken the chance to inspect the pitch and decide whether a third spinner or fourth seamer would be more appropriate. On a dry, shaved surface though, it looks likely that Gareth Batty, the offspinner, will come into the side in place of Ansari.Moeen Ali is to be promoted to No. 4 in the batting order and Bairstow to No. 5. Buttler will bat at No. 7. That means Moeen will have batted at every position in the top nine for England in Test cricket except at No. 3, which is where he bats for Worcestershire.

Former Pakistan fast bowler and coach Waqar Younis believes Salman Butt should be recalled to the national team based on his recent form, now that he has served his ban for spot-fixing.Waqar was Pakistan’s coach during the infamous Lord’s Test in 2010, when Butt was found guilty of orchestrating the delivery of no-balls from fast bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif. All three of them served bans, but only Amir returned to the national team since.Waqar said he was in favour of Butt returning based on his recent domestic form, which included two centuries in the final of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy that helped his team win their maiden title.”He was playing really well and also he has served his sentence and punishment and I feel personally that everyone deserves a go,” Waqar said to . “People are going to have different views. He is a good player, he is playing really well.”Speaking to ESPNcricinfo during the first-class final, Butt had reiterated his desire to play for Pakistan again.”I am knocking very hard on selectors’ doors,” Butt had said after the second day’s play. “I don’t want to break [down] but I want to keep myself fit and keep my form alive. With my wisdom, I am trying my best with the best of my intention. Being selected isn’t my choice, it’s they [the selectors] who have to decide. I have a wish and always want to be in every squad. I have the capacity but that is something the selectors have to tell and decide.”After the Asia Cup earlier this year, Waqar, Pakistan’s coach at the time, had intended to include Butt in the World T20 squad, an idea that was turned down by PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan. The PCB wanted Butt to play an entire first-class season to prove his fitness, form and utility.Butt was the second highest run-getter in the National T20 Cup this year, scoring 350 runs in eight innings. He followed that up with 749 runs at 49.40 in the first-class season. However, the PCB has been reluctant so far in the case of both Butt and Asif, and haven’t shown them the same leniency that was granted to Amir.