Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan cricket selectors, headed by former Test opener Haroon Rasheed, on Wednesday recalled fast bowler Wahab Riaz and batsman Fawad Alam in national squads named for upcoming Zimbabwe tour and England Test series in the United Arab Emirates. Shahid Afridi will lead the Twenty20 team while Azhar Ali will lead the ODI team for tour of Zimbabwe starting from September 27. Pakistan will play two T20 matches with Zimbabwe on September 27 and 29, while three ODI matches will be played on October 01, 03 and 05. The Test squad and the A team for the England series starting from October 13 were also named. Misbahul Haq will lead the Test squad against Alastair Cook’s side in the UAE. Sohaib Maqsood has made a comeback to the T20 and ODI squads after being out of the scene due to injury, while Wahab will also be available to represent Pakistan in all three formats after his recovery from hand injury.

Sarfraz Ahmad and Anwar Ali were not named in the T20 squad against Zimbabwe as the former was travelling to offer Hajj, allowing Mohammad Rizwan to keep wicket. Veteran Test batsman Younus Khan and off-spinner Saeed Ajmal were excluded from the Zimbabwe tour, while the former made it to the Test squad against England. Among the more familiar names, batsman Umar Akmal and left-arm quick Sohail Tanvir are only for the T20s. “We have rested Anwar to give another talented all-rounder Amir Yamin a chance as part of our rebuilding,” chief selector Haroon said. “He played a couple of outstanding innings to show his ability and we would like to take him ahead with our plan. We meant to reward the outstanding performers from the recently concluded National T20 Cup. But at the same time we are keeping continuity in the rebuilding phase of the Pakistan team by retaining majority of players who were part of the successful last tour of Sri Lanka.”

Rookie paceman Imran Khan Junior has been rewarded for his excellent bowling in domestic cricket. The 27-year-old took 16 wickets to help Peshawar Region defend the National Twenty20 Championship title in Rawalpindi on Tuesday, claiming his second successive best bowler award after also winning it in 2014. “We have rewarded some outstanding performers in the recently concluded tournament and Imran is one of them,” Haroon added.

Fawad could end a five-year hiatus from Test cricket after being named in the 15-man Pakistan squad to face England in October. His last Test was against New Zealand in November 2009 but he has been a heavy scorer in first-class cricket. Over the last 12 months, he had made two centuries – 201 and 164 – and five fifties in 14 innings. Fawad had almost made it to the squad for the Sri Lanka tour recently but his name was pulled out due to logistical reasons. “Our Test team has been an established team for years now and it is hard to make room for any new player. Fawad was in our plan for months now after his performance and we know he had been knocking at the selectors’ door for years in fact. We have added him to the squad in a bid to get ourselves ready for the transition after Misbah as we obviously need to have guys like him when our seasoned players fade away,” Haroon said.

Pakistan have received a boost in the fast bowling department as well. Wahab has recovered from the hand injury he sustained in Sri Lanka and replaced Ehsan Adil. Left-arm quick Junaid Khan has kept his place in the Test squad as well despite seeming off-colour in Sri Lanka. Junaid did not play Pakistan’s last Test in Pallekele, but kept himself busy playing for English county Middlesex over the summer. According to Haroon, Wahab and Junaid might be suffering a dip in form but are among Pakistan’s major investments during the ongoing transition. “They are our investment and we would like to persist with them. Both might have been low in confidence for some time now but we aren’t judging them on the basis of T20 performance. At the top level they will definitely come hard and with a different state of mind. We have named Junaid in the A team so that he can get ample time to get himself ready for the Test series.”

Selectors have retained the services of Yasir Shah, the top-ranked spinner in the world, and Zulfiqar Babar as far as spin bowling resources are concerned in the Test squad. The two are vital replacements for Ajmal and Abdur Rehman, who had been Pakistan’s major assets for years in the UAE. Haris Sohail, another long-term investment Pakistan have made since 2013, missed out due to his patellar tendinitis injury. He had been undergoing rehabilitation for the injury for over a month at the NCA but failed to get himself cleared by doctors.

Squads for Zimbabwe tour:

T20Is: Shahid Afridi (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmad Shahzad, Mukhtar Ahmad, Umar Akmal, Sohaib Maqsood, Shoaib Malik, Amir Yamin, Mohammad Irfan, Bilal Asif, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Rizwan and Imran Khan Junior.

ODIs: Azhar Ali (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmad Shahzad, Sohaib Maqsood, Shoaib Malik, Babar Azam, Sarfraz Ahmad, Mohammad Rizwan, Immad Wasim, Anwar Ali, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah, Rahat Ali, Mohammad Irfan and Asad Shafiq.

Pakistan’s Test squad for England series:

Misbahul Haq (captain), Ahmad Shahzad, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Fawad Alam, Asad Shafiq, Younus Khan, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, Wahab Riaz, Imran Khan, Rahat Ali and Junaid Khan.