Lahore, July 09: Four national cricketers Yasir Hameed, Azhar Ali, Tanvir Ahmed and Zulqarnain Haider left for England to join the Pakistan squad for the upcoming Test series against Australia and the hosts.
While Yasie was staging a comeback in the Pakistan team after a span of three years in place of Faisal Iqbal, who is facing some confrontation from the PCB and its management, all-rounder Azhar and medium pacer Tanvir got a chance to make their maiden trip
to play with the national side.
Meanwhile, Zulqarnain has been included as a back-up wicketkeeper for Kamran Akmal.
Interestingly, the selectors discarded talented Karachi keeper Sarfaraz Ahmed, who had earlier been sent to Australia as reinforcement after Akmal’s poor show there. He also played the third and final Test against Australia at Hobart.
Pakistan, who started their campaign in England on a winning note having white washed Australia in the two T20s, will face the same opposition in two Test matches starting from July 13 at the Lord’s. The second Test is scheduled from the July 21 and will be played in Leeds. The Test series against Australia is a home series for Pakistan which has been shifted to the English grounds following Australia’s refusal to visit the nation due to the security concerns.
After the two-Test match series against Australia, Pakistan will be pitted against hosts England in a four-Test match series.
Captain Shahid Afridi expressed confidence ahead of the Test series but said the team would miss the services of seasoned Test players Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousaf in England.
”Obviously we will miss their experience. I wanted them in the team for this tour and I tried my best to see they were in the team but for different reasons this couldn’t happen and it is unfortunate,” he was quoted as saying by ‘The News’.
However, Afridi said that the team would have to manage with the available resources in England. The maverick all-rounder also clarified that he was relying on his young guns for much better performance than the T20s to offer the nation some positive results in the Test series as well.
——–Agencies