Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik have not been included in the national squad by Pakistan Cricket Board for New Zealand tour which starts at the end of next month. They have been overlooked for both twenty20 and Test squads of the tour. Another senior player
who faced the same fate is Muhammad Yousuf; the exclusion of veteran player from the New Zealand tour especially from the test squad is an indication that his career in cricket at an international level seems to have come to an end. Malik and Akmal were not
given clearance by the board’s integrity committee and Pakistan Cricket Board has not cleared his decision on the exclusion of these players and said that they have considered a vast pool of players and among which the squad for next tour with New Zealand
was selected. Same views were shown by the chief selector of Pakistan cricket team that Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal were not considered for selection as they were not given clearance from the board.
Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik were also not included in the national squad for the Pakistan’s home series of two twenty20 games, 5 ODIs and two Tests against South Africa on a neutral venue at UAE in which Pakistan’s performance was not quite saticfactory.
Pakistan lost both twenty20 games, lost ODI series with 3-2 and was able to light a ray of hope by drawing both test matches in the presence of new test captain Misbah ul Haq. Former captain of national side, Shoaib Malik, was excluded from the last series
against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 on the basis of his lack of form and Kamran Akmal was absent from national duty due to his appendicitis operation initially but he was totally fit by the time Tests started. There have been some speculations on the reasons of him being
overlooked: one reason might have been the accusations on him at being part of the spot fixing scandal during the series against England but he was cleared by ICC and by that time he was also performing brilliantly in the domestic cricket. Malik has also been
scoring heavily and getting much wickets in the domestic cricket.
There have been speculations also on the future of Muhammad Yousuf in international cricket. There had been reports on the planning of Yousuf being overlooked for the World Cup which is not too far. Yousuf being overlooked for future tours has been explained
differently. Yousuf was not included in the first test against South Africa and the decision was made on the morning of the day the match started, and groin injury was given as the reason behind that decision. Chief Selector, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohsin-Hasan-Khan-c77595, said that the
recent injury is not a big issue but they are concerned about Yousuf’s fitness in future. Some cricket analysts said that Azhar Ali has emerged as a talented batman. Younis Khan is back to international cricket with good performance. New captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972
seems to be back in form and pakistan’s middle order in the presence of Umar Akmal seems more promising so all of these factors are responsible for Yousuf’s omission from the national cricketing squad as his performance has also not been so eye-catching in
last couple of years; he played 13 Tests at an average of just 35 for last three years.
On the other hand http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-c89347 Afridid and Misbah ul Haq have been retained as captains of twenty20 and Test squads respectively. Imran Farhat and Mohammad Sami have been axed with Ahmed Shehzad returning to the limited overs game. Rest of the squad is the same
as that of series against South Africa except Sohail Tanvir returns to limited over games and Test cricket with a long off season from the national duty for many reasons, the major one being severe injuries. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 will play 3 twenty20 games, six ODIs and
two tests against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Auckland-c766 on Dec 23.
Tags: