Pakistan's chief selector Mohsin
Khan has said the squad for the
tour of Zimbabwe is an
opportunity to blood a few
young players in the company of
more experienced senior players. "Zimbabwe cannot be taken
lightly and our squad was picked
with full respect for the
opponents," Mohsin told
Pakpassion.net. "There was
never any real consideration for sending an entirely experimental
squad made up of youngsters
and players with little or no
international experience. With
international cricket not
returning to Pakistan yet, we seem to have a reduced number
of international fixtures and
therefore we have less
opportunity to experiment." Pakistan have rested their two
strike bowlers Umar Gul and
Wahab Riaz, opting for a new-
look pace attack that includes
Sohail Khan, Sohail Tanvir, Aizaz
Cheema and Junaid Khan. Mohsin said Gul and Riaz needed a rest
and that Pakistan needed to
build a reserve of fast bowlers in
any case. "Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz have
been playing constantly in all
formats of cricket recently and
Umar had a slight injury problem
ahead of the tour of the
Caribbean. Both Sohail Tanvir and Sohail Khan have proved to the
selectors that they are capable
of bowling in all formats of
cricket; they have shown that
their fitness problems are behind
them and they have bowled long spells in domestic cricket without
any problems. Both of these
boys have shown a great deal of
promise in all formats and we
felt deserved a recall." While some of Pakistan's
cricketers have had a couple of
months off after the tour of
Ireland, Gul and Riaz have both
been playing for counties in
England. Sohail Tanvir and Sohail Khan are both making comebacks
to the Pakistan side. Tanvir was
last in the squad for the tour of
New Zealand early in the year,
while Khan has been ignored
since he played one Test and four ODIs back in 2008-09. Another player making a
comeback to the squad is opener
Imran Farhat, who has not
played for Pakistan since the
England tour last summer.
Farhat's return comes after Ahmed Shehzad failed to cement
his place in the Pakistan limited-
overs side. "We were looking for
an outstanding, reliable young
opening batsman for the Test
arena, but we did not find one for the longer version of
cricket," Mohsin sad. "Imran did
not have a good tour of England
last year and he was
subsequently dropped, but he's
bounced back well in domestic cricket and had a very good
season last time around." Mohsin also explained the return
of Adnan Akmal for Mohammad
Salman in the wicketkeeper's
slot, saying Adnan had actually
been the first choice for the
West Indies tour as well. He also said Sarfraz Ahmed, who has
been named among the reserve
players, is very much on the
selectors' radars. "Adnan was selected, he was our
first choice but after some
confusion Salman went to the
West Indies. That is history now
and after a positive meeting
with PCB chairman Ijaz Butt, that matter was resolved amicably
and the confusion cleared up. We
also have another bright
wicketkeeping prospect in
Sarfraz Ahmed who we have
named among the standby players." While Pakistan have gone in with
a new-look bowling attack for
the tour, the batting line-up has
more familiar faces such as like
Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan.
But Mohsin said the time had come for some of the younger
players to prepare to fill the
positions Misbah and Younis will
vacate when they retire. "We are trying to create a
group of responsible batsmen to
back up the experienced
batsmen and the likes of Azhar
Ali and Asad Shafiq are definitely
in that mould. Umar Akmal is another young exciting batsman
who I feel has a bright future.
The onus now on the selectors is
to ensure that we have enough
middle-order backup so that
when the two senior batsmen do eventually call it a day, then
there are able replacements." The squad for the Zimbabwe
tour includes three uncapped
players: Cheema, Rameez Raja
and Yasir Shah. Raja's call-up
comes on the back of consistent
domestic performance in all formats. He was the leading run-
getter in the Quaid-e-Azam
Trophy Division One last season,
and was top of the run charts
again during the recent Faysal
Bank Super Eight Twenty20 Cup. Mohsin said what also influenced
his selection was Raja's
reputation as a lively fielder. "We felt that the tour of
Zimbabwe was the ideal time to
give Rameez a chance in
international cricket. Rameez is a
cricketer who also fields well and
this is something that my colleagues in the selection
committee and I have really
focused upon." Pakistan's tour of Zimbabwe
begins with a two-day practice
game starting August 28, and will
feature one Test, three ODIs and
two Twenty20 internationals.
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