Pakistan leg-spinner Zahid Mahmood did not travel to Zimbabwe due to travel anxiety, says PCB source

Karachi: Pakistan leg-spinner Zahid Mahmood had not travelled to Zimbabwe last week due to "travel anxiety" and not because he had suffered a heat stroke as was reported, it has been learnt.

Zahid was to replace Shahdab Khan for the T20 series in Zimbabwe from April 21-25 after already being named in the squad for the two Tests.

A Pakistan Cricket board (PCB) source said when the team management in South Africa requested that Zahid join the T20 squad for the series in Zimbabwe and reach early, the Board made arrangements for his travel.

Representational image. Reuters

"But it turned out that Zahid was not willing to fly alone to Zimbabwe as he said he had never travelled before internationally and that too alone and he apparently had a bout of travel anxiety," the source said.

After learning of Zahid's reluctance to fly alone the board decided that he will now leave with the players who will be going to join the test squad next week.

"Zahid will now leave with the Test players, Azhar Ali, Fawad Alam, Salman Agha, Saud Shakeel, Abid Ali etc for Zimbabwe which means he will miss the T20 series," the source said.

Zahid who made his T20 debut for Pakistan recently in the home T20 series against South Africa has been a prominent leg-spinner in domestic cricket and belongs to the interiors of Sindh province.