PCB says Ahmed Shehzad has failed dope test, ban looms

The Pakistan Cricket Board announced on Tuesday that it will issue a charge sheet to Ahmed Shehzad after he was tested positive for consumption of a banned substance. 

As per ICC rules, the batsman will be suspended from taking part in any form of cricket once PCB serves him a notice. Shehzad will be provided with 14 days to answer charges against him. 

PCB took to Twitter to issue a statement 

According to a report in DAWN, Shehzad was tested positive in Pakistan but the country’s cricket governing body, as per ICC rules, refrained from naming the senior cricketer and sent the samples to an Indian lab for confirmation. The results were reportedly delayed as the reports from India had arrived late - on June 9. 

Earlier in June, the governing body had said in a tweet that a player had tested positive in a dope test but had withheld his name.

The 26-year-old had failed to cement his spot in the national team after being inconsistent in recent years. He could muster only 38 runs against minnows Scotland in a two-match T20I series in June. The batsman was later dropped for the tri-series against Australia and Zimbabwe. 

Shehzad is hardly the first Pakistani cricketer to face PCB’s ire for having failed a dope test.

Left-arm spinner Raza Hasan was banned for two years after failing a dope test in 2012. Yasir Shah and Abdur Rehman too had received temporary bans in 2016 and 2012, respectively.