{"id":15862,"date":"2025-08-06T00:05:01","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T00:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=15862"},"modified":"2025-08-06T00:05:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T00:05:01","slug":"even-opposition-noticed-my-fitness-mir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=15862","title":{"rendered":"Even opposition noticed my fitness: Mir"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Pakistan leg-spinner Usama Mir has expressed his deep frustration over continuous exclusion from the national setup despite consistent performances and effort.<\/p>\n<p>In a candid interview, Mir shared his side of the story, questioning the transparency of selection decisions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I&#8217;m available, I don&#8217;t get selected \u2014 so what&#8217;s left to say about anything else? I just don&#8217;t understand it,&#8221; said Usama.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was the highest wicket-taker in last year&#8217;s PSL, yet I wasn&#8217;t picked. This year, although I didn&#8217;t perform at that level, there were still players with worse performances who got selected. It&#8217;s very clear to me now,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old, who continues to be overlooked for national selection despite consistent performances, expressed his deep frustration over the handling of his career and selection process.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I feel like I&#8217;m at a stage where, if I were given a chance, the response would simply be, &#8216;Perform well and you&#8217;ll be selected,&#8217; and so on,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Highlighting his record-breaking achievements, the spinner questioned why his performances have not been rewarded.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even today, I still hold the record for the most wickets in a single PSL season over ten editions\u00a0\u2014 but despite that, I wasn&#8217;t picked. If you look at my last match performance, people still say, &#8216;You won us that game \u2014 how did you get dropped after that?&#8217; I can&#8217;t understand it either,&#8221; he stated.<\/p>\n<p>He then explained how he responded to criticism about his fitness by taking serious steps to improve.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After that, I worked extremely hard. They made fitness an excuse. I was told I failed the fitness test, so I trained hard. I was captain of the Sialkot team; the trainers, the head coach\u0097all can vouch for me. Even opposition teams were surprised by how much effort I was putting in,&#8221; he revealed.<\/p>\n<p>Despite putting in the work, Mir says he was never given the promised opportunity to prove his fitness.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I got myself fit. They told me, &#8216;You&#8217;re being given time. Your test will be conducted later as Champions T20 is approaching.&#8217; But even at the promised time, no test was taken. I kept calling everyone\u0097selectors, officials (I won&#8217;t name names) \u2014 all the decision-makers. I was repeatedly told, &#8216;Just wait a little longer.&#8217; And then came a time when they stopped responding altogether,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>He shared how the communication breakdown worsened, even when he made persistent efforts to reach out.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They took a whole month to reply to just one of my messages. I was told, &#8216;Your test is scheduled on this date.&#8217; That date never came. Rest days kept coming, but no test was conducted. This happened three, four, even five times. I kept calling \u2014 they stopped picking up. They stopped responding to messages,&#8221; he lamented.<\/p>\n<p>Usama recalled a particularly baffling situation before his Big Bash League stint, where confusion and miscommunication hit a new low.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was about to leave for the Big Bash League (BBL), and I wanted to clear everything before leaving. I landed in Sydney on the 23rd, and the next day, on the 24th, I received a message saying, &#8216;You have to report on the 26th,'&#8221; he recalled.<\/p>\n<p>He revealed that the same official who issued his NOC just days earlier seemed unaware of his travel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The same official had issued me the NOC on the 21st. I asked him, &#8216;Don&#8217;t you know where I am?&#8217; and he replied, &#8216;I don&#8217;t know.&#8217; I said, &#8216;You&#8217;re the one who issued the NOC! Didn&#8217;t you check the dates before approving it? Now how can I just come back? I&#8217;ve been chasing you for a whole month, and now you suddenly want me to return?'&#8221; he recounted.<\/p>\n<p>Concluding his statement, Usama said he still struggles to understand why he&#8217;s been treated this way.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These are the kind of things that happened with me\u0097and I&#8217;m genuinely shocked as to why. I have proof of everything I&#8217;ve said,&#8221; he concluded.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistan leg-spinner Usama Mir has expressed his deep frustration over continuous exclusion from the national setup despite consistent performances and effort. In a candid interview, Mir shared his side of the story, questioning the transparency of selection decisions. &#8220;When I&#8217;m available, I don&#8217;t get selected \u2014 so what&#8217;s left to say about anything else? I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}