It was back in 2009, when Fawad Alam played a test match for Pakistan in Dunedin and returned with scores of 29 and 5. Pakistan went on to lose the test match and Fawad Alam has never played a test match since then. For those who wonder that he might not have been batting well at the domestic level, the answer is a big "NO". He has an average of nearly 57 in domestic cricket and has more than 12000 runs to his name.
For people who wonder that he might have created some sought of imbalance in the team which resulted in his snubbing, the answer is a "NO" again. He plays in the middle order, at number 5 or 6 and he is a very handy left arm spin bowler, more than handy actually.
And for those who wonder that he might have been a bad fielder, the answer again is a big "NO". He was among one of the few Pakistani players who fielded very well. He was usually seen guarding the point-cover area. He was slim and used to run very fast.
So, the question is that with all those qualities, why was he ignored for more than a decade! Well, probably no one apart from the then Pakistani team management. He did feature in some one day internationals after that but he never featured in any form of international cricket after 2015.
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In a recent interview with the former captain, Shahid Afridi on his YouTube channel, Fawad said that he is consistently working very hard on his game and he has not disappointed for not being in the Pakistan line up. He said that he has performed well in the domestic cricket for years and he is famous because of that and that he wants to continue performing like that even if he doesn't earn a call up.
He has been knocking the doors for so long now but this year that knocking turned into banging as he scored 4 centuries in domestic cricket this year and he is also among the top run scorers. He was also the sixth highest run getter in domestic cricket last year. He has been going viral on social media and the Pakistan team management couldn't ignore him more. He has finally selected in the 17 man squad against Sri Lanka and is likely to play in the first test starting on 11th of December.
Soon after the news of his selection came out, the fans were delighted and they expressed their feelings via social media. Plenty of people from across the world congratulated him for being selected.
I think that he is a good player and his current form only makes him better. This is a good decision taken by PCB and hopefully it will work.