Tour of India: PCB drops Razzaq, Sami and Nazir

Youngster Asad Ali called to the squad. Wahab Riaz, Younis Khan, Imran Farhat make comebacks for ODI.

LAHORE: Pakistan cricket board on Monday announced the 22 players for the one day international and Twenty20 teams for the upcoming winter tour of India, Express News reported.

According to the team sheet read out by chief selector Iqbal Qasim, Abdul Razzaq, Imran Nazir and Mohammad Sami have been dropped from the teams altogether while Shahid Afridi has only been retained for the shorter Twenty 20 format.

Asked about the decision to drop Razzaq, Qasim said that the names added to the sheet were decided through consensus including input from the captains of the two formats. He added that the focus with which the team had been selected was that “this team looks to the future,” and Razzaq, while a great player, was not a part of this.

When pressed that an inexperienced and unproven Asad Ali had been selected for the team instead of the experienced and proven talent of Razzaq, the chief selector said that Razzaq indeed senior, and for his talent, he deserved to be part of the playing eleven when selected, but “there we did not have space for him.”

Asked why Shahid Afridi had been dropped from the ODI team, Qasim said that Afridi was witnessing a dip in form, but he had been retained for the shorter format. Responding on why the all-rounder had been retained over Razzaq for the Twenty20s’, the chief selector said that Afridi is listed as a right-arm leg spin, while Razzaq is listed as right-arm medium pace hence the Karachi player filled a gap in the bowling department that otherwise Razzaq did not.

“Right now India's chips are down and they rely more on batting, in comparison our bowling is effective, and if batting supports us, then we can counter them,” Qasim said, before adding that consistency in both batting and bowling was the key in giving Pakistan an edge over India.

On the youngsters selected, the chief selector said that the height of the likes of Mohammad Irfan and Asad Ali gave Pakistan an advantage in bowling and could prove to be a surprise package for India.

The teams announced area as follows:

Twenty20:

Mohammad Hafeez (captain), Nasir Jamshed, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal, Umar Amin, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Sohail Tanveer, Umar Gul, Asad Ali, Zulfiqar Babar, Ahmed Shahzad.

ODI:

Misbahul Haq (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Nasir Jamshed, Haris Sohail, Kamran Akmal, Saeed Ajmal, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Umar Gul, Zulfiqar Babar, Imran Farhat, Umar Akmal, Anwar Ali.