Pakistan have rewarded some of
their consistent performers in
domestic cricket by including
three uncapped players - top-
order batsman Rameez Raja,
legspinner Yasir Shah and seamer Aizaz Cheema - as well as
fast bowler Sohail Khan, who has
played only one Test, in the
squad for the tour of Zimbabwe
that starts on August 28. There
are also recalls for opening batsman Imran Farhat, who
hasn't played for Pakistan since
the one-day series against
South Africa in the UAE in
October 2010, and left-arm fast
bowler Sohail Tanvir, who was last included for the New Zealand
tour earlier in the year. The squad seems to be an
experimental one, with the
bowling attack in particular
featuring several new names and
missing some of the senior
players. Umar Gul, Tanvir Ahmed and Wahab Riaz, who have been
Pakistan's three premier fast
bowlers in recent times, have all
been rested, with Sohail Khan,
Sohail Tanvir, Cheema and Junaid
Khan making up the pace attack. There is also a change in the
spin department with Abdur
Rehman being rested and Yasir
being given an opportunity. Pakistan's chief selector Mohsin
Khan explained that the fresh
look to the squad was an effort
to blood youngsters. "We have
to bring in young players along
with seniors so that they could be groomed," he said. "Because
it's a short tour we have
selected only one squad for all
three formats of the game and
have rested Riaz and Gul in a
hope to try out some youngsters." Adnan Akmal has reclaimed the
wicketkeeper's spot in the
squad, meaning Mohammad
Salman, who failed to impress
with the bat in the West Indies
and Ireland, makes way. Allrounder Hammad Azam also
failed to have an impact on
those tours and has been kept
in the standbys to make place
for Raja. Ahmed Shehzad, who
was dropped after the tour of the West Indies, has been left
out again. Another development is the
inclusion of Shoaib Malik, the
former Pakistan captain, in the
list of standbys. Malik has been
involved in a battle with the PCB,
whose integrity committee has not cleared him for selection
since the controversial tour of
England last year. Mohsin said
Malik would only be included if he
managed to obtain clearance
from the PCB. Meanwhile, legspinner Danish Kaneria, who
has taken his fight to get
clearance to the Sindh High
Court, continues to be ignored. Raja's call-up comes on the back
of consistent domestic
performance in all formats. He
was the leading run-getter in
the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Division
One last season, and was top of the run charts again during the
recent Faysal Bank Super Eight
Twenty20 Cup. His performances
in the T20 competition, which
included a 97 in the semi-final
and a half-century in the final, led to calls for his inclusion in the
national side. Sohail Khan, Sohail Tanvir and
Cheema were all recently part of
an emerging players camp at the
National Cricket Academy in
Lahore, where they received tips
from former Pakistan fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz. Sohail
Khan and Sohail Tanvir both
brought themselves back into
the limelight during the Super
Eight Twenty20 competition; the
former took 14 wickets in Karachi Dolphins' road to the
finals, while the latter captained
Rawalpindi Rams to the title.
Cheema, 31, earned his call-up
through another strong first-
class season in which he took 57 wickets in eight games in the
Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. Yasir impressed with his 16
wickets in four games during the
Faysal Bank Pentangular Cup at
the beginning of this year, and
then took 3 for 29 for Pakistan
A against Afghanistan in a one- dayer. Farhat also did well in the
Pentangular, hitting a century
and two fifties, and was leading
run-getter in the domestic one-
day competition before that. Pakistan squad: Misbah-ul-Haq
(capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Taufiq
Umar, Imran Farhat, Azhar Ali,
Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Umar
Akmal, Rameez Raja junior, Adnan
Akmal (wk), Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Shah, Sohail Tanvir, Sohail Khan,
Junaid Khan, Aizaz Cheema. Standbys: Sarfraz Ahmed (wk),
Khurram Manzoor, Sharjeel Khan,
Mohammad Talha, Hammad Azam,
Shoaib Malik subject to
clearance
No comments:
Post a Comment