Pakistan's T20, ODI squad for England - a blend of experience and youth
Pakistan Cricket Board has announced a 17 member squad that will tour England to take part in the One Day and T20 series that will start at the end of the fourth and final test at Lords.
The team is a blend of experience and youth and expectedly includes Mohammad Yousuf who made a smashing return to the test team with a match winning performance.
Moreover, many were expecting Younis Khan to return to the national fold. However, the former captain has been snubbed form the team once again. Shoaib Malik has been dropped from the team as well after an indifferent test performance with a top score was 38 in the three matches he took part in.
He had a wretched run at Headingley against Australia and was equally poor in the first two tests before making way for Mohammad Yousuf in the third test that Pakistan won at Oval.
Besides Malik, the national selection committee headed by former test opener http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Raza-Hasan-c84407, Imran Farhat and Yasir Hameed who are all part of the current test squad.
Imran Farhat and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Yasir-Hameed-c2811 are set to play in the last test match and would be disappointed on missing out in the ODI format as they have a decent record in that version.
On the other hand, Wahab Riaz, who made a stunning debut in the third test with a five wicket haul in the first innings, has been retained in the limited overs squad along with fast bowler Umar Gul. The fast bowler form Nawakili is all set to recover in time from a hamstring injury that he sustained during the second test match at Edgbaston that Pakistan lost by 9 wickets.
He would be ably assisted by the likes of Mohammad Amir, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif and Wahab in what is a very potent pace attack.
The line-up also includes Abdul Razzaq who has been a formidable performer in both formats of limited over cricket.
Razzaq played a match winning knock in the second T20 match of the two match series in Dubai earlier in the year. Pakistan will be relying on his experience of English conditions as they bid to overhaul http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in the T20 format.
The batting line-up also looks formidable on paper as other than Yousuf, the team bodes of exciting talent in the shape of Umar Akmal, captain Shahid Afridi, all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali, Fawad Alam and wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal who is desperate to return to form after contributing 10 runs in the four innings he has played in the test series thus far.
Imran Farhat has paid the price for his lean trot in the test series, and has been shunned from the squad despite scoring a half century in the last One Day match that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747. Finally, they ended an embarrassing 9 match losing streak with a bang.
The limited overs series starts with two T20 matches, followed by 5 ODI’s that conclude on the 22nd of September.
The series is of vital importance for both teams as they aim to build their squads for the fifty over World Cup that is set to be played in the Indian subcontinent in February-March next year.
Squad: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahzaib-Hasan-c2488, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Yousuf, Azhar Ali, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal, Fawad Alam, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Wahab Riaz.
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