Karachi, February 08: Kamran Akmal is likely to pay the price for his fumbles during the Australian tour, as well as his repeated statements to the press in the run-up to the Hobart Test, by being dropped from Pakistan’s Twenty20 squad to take on England in Dubai on February 19-20.
Akmal was vice-captain for the tour, but dropped four crucial catches during the second Test in Sydney as Pakistan crashed to a shattering defeat. Until the last international of the tour, he didn’t produce much with the bat either, a 33-ball 64 in the Twenty his only international fifty on the entire tour.
A series of belligerent comments to the Australian press in the aftermath of the Sydney Test, when he insisted he would be retained for Hobart, despite the PCB already having sent Sarfraz Ahmed as replacement and stated that he will play, has also not been looked upon kindly and is expected to lead to further sanction. The matter will be investigated by a board evaluation committee later this week, pending the submission of the tour manager’s report.
Not many changes are expected in the squad, but there are significant ones. Abdul Razzaq is likely to come in replacing Naved-ul-Hasan, and Yasir Arafat is also expected to be back. The fast bowlers Mohammad Talha and Wahab Riaz, with the Pakistan A side to play against the England Lions in Dubai, will also be part of the squad, especially as Mohammad Aamer’s inclusion is still subject to fitness over a groin injury that ruled him out of the last three ODIs and the Twenty20 in Australia. The selectors are also understood to be keen on keeping middle-order batsman Aamer Sajjad in the UAE with the senior squad; Sajjad is vice-captain of the Pakistan A team.
Pakistan are currently without a chief selector, Iqbal Qasim having stood down last week after Pakistan’s Australian whitewash. He was asked to continue but refused to do so. This squad was selected, it is believed, with inputs from PCB chairman Ijaz Butt, the board’s chief operating office Wasim Bari, and the existing selection committee. It is believed that Yawar Saeed, a former manager of the side and close to Butt, was also involved in the process, leading to speculation that he might be the new head of the committee.
A decision on the captain of the side for both games will be left, however, to the chairman of the board. Pakistan’s regular Twenty20 captain, Shahid Afridi, has been banned for two matches after being found guilty of ball-tampering in the fifth ODI against Australia in Perth. Having already sat out the Melbourne game, he will miss the first match against England on February 19. Shoaib Malik, who led in Afridi’s absence in Melbourne, is expected to do so again in Dubai but it is unclear yet whether he will for both games, as some reports suggest, or that Afridi will come back for the second.
Mohammad Asif will not be able to enter the UAE due to the authorities having refused to revoke the travelling restrictions imposed on the Pakistan fast bowler.
Pakistan quad: (probable) Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir, Khalid Latif, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Umar Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Arafat, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Talha, Wahab Riaz, Aamer Sajjad
——-Agencies