The guy has been living off that England Series in 2010 which mind you was played on one of the greenest wickets in English History and even the coach back then commented in the middle of the series Waqar Younis that in his entire life he had never seen an entire English Season where the wickets completely suited the bowlers.
Even RP Singh has demolished England and looked like a legend in English Bowling Conditions.
Barring that Eng series in 2010, Amir has had nothing to show in his entire career. That spell against India in the Asia Cup T-20 2016 didn't win Pakistan the game, that CT final spell came after we posted 360 runs in the final. The guy has remained impactless in all PSL Tournaments.
For how long will he continue to play game after game, opening the bowling and remain wicket less while the likes of even the mediocre Faheem Ashraf picks up a wicket and Mohd Abbas too picks up a wicket while remaining economical.
Pakistan has got to be fairer to the likes of Junaid Khan, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Usman Shinwari and co who get benched after 1-2 bad games while Amir continues to play game after game regardless of wickets.
The attitude of "Atleast he keeps things tight" is what has bought us to this state today.
I think highly of you as a poster but when you bring up inferior options to Amir it's hard to take this post seriously. To be frank, this comes across as a comical witch hunt against him, if anything.
Amir deserved to be dropped in the latter half of last year for his lack of wickets but funnily enough when I mentioned this to another poster, I was accused of having an agenda against him and told I had "deep hatred in my heart". I would rather have Amir than any of the other 4 names you mentioned because he does have a good track record in ICC tournaments and has shown numerous times in the past, he keeps calm on the big stage especially in those high stake clashes as displayed:
In the 2009 WT20 his wicket maiden over in the first over of final with the dismissal of Dilshan arguably won Pakistan that game because he was the leading run scorer and on a roll during that tournament. Later that year his bowling was yet again pivotal in the CT when he removed Tendulkar with another superb display with the ball in hand. He excelled again in the 2017 CT final when he removed the top 3 on a batting paradise, despite this you decide to belittle this achievement citing RP Singh, who actually bowled in contrasting conditions.
Having said that if there were superior options at a similar calibre to say Shaheen, then I would I would also be equally disgusted to see him in the XI, but we have to settle with the best we have. What I do like about Amir is the fact that he's generally been very economical and someone who can be relied upon on to defend a total when the opposition say for e.g. is need of 90+ runs in the last 10 overs. His T20I economy rate is a testament of how skilled he is as a defensive bowler. I appreciate he shouldn't be there solely for this purpose but the fact of the matter is there is nothing going for Junaid, Wahab, Rahat or Shinwari in regards to defensive bowling or wicket taking ability.
I know you're a fan of Shinwari, but I promise you he will crumble in those high pressure WC clashes coming up. He simply does not know how to respond in a match situation when the batsmen are on the attack. I find his bowling far too predictable and he relies heavily on rhythm, so he's going to have too many bad days which the team simply cannot afford. Another similar bowler was Gul and we saw how costly he could be - as we all witnessed in Mohali 2011, but many of us forget he was also one of the main culprits on that day.
I cannot for the life of me understand why you have mentioned Wahab and Rahat in particular. The former is one of the worst bowlers for English conditions and it couldn't be more evident during the 2016 series when he was butchered in Trent Bridge. He's a poor ODI bowler anyway with no bowling intelligence whatsoever.
Rahat might be useful in swing bowling conditions but even then in England he averaged 50 with the red ball in his last series there (back in 2016) because he's also a mere spray gun. He is shockingly bad in ODIs as well but it's ridiculous to suggest he's been treated unfairly.
I don't mind experimenting with Junaid and yes he did have a good CT but I don't think there's much going for him either. He's far too gun barrel straight for my liking and doesn't offer any lateral movement. Furthermore he lacks pace as well. For these reasons he will be far too expensive with ball in hand especially on flat wickets with the ball coming on nicely.
The criticisms made on this thread against Amir comes from emotions and frustrations rather than any kind of rationale. The other pace options competing for him spot are simply inferior to him and secondly we don't have the luxury of time to experiment, with the WC just two months away. Guess it serves the Pakistan team right when we haven't grasped the art of experimenting after all these years. Instead we see first team players put out against the likes of Scotland, Ireland, Zimbabwe, SL and WI B sides in these meaningless T20Is. If we tried out more fresh faces in the last couple of years, who knows Amir would be down the pecking order where he belongs but we have to settle with mediocrity at the end of the day.
