Pakistan have overlooked fast bowler Rao Iftikhar in their 22-man training squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka.
No place for paceman in 22-man squad
Pakistan have overlooked fast bowler Rao Iftikhar in their 22-man training squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka.
Pakistan will be playing their first Test match in 14 months when they host Sri Lanka in a two-Test series beginning in Karachi on February 21.
Chief selector and former leg-spinner Abdul Qadir announced a 22-man squad, which will be cut down to either 14 or 15 players, on Tuesday, and confirmed there is no place for Rao.
The 28-year-old right-arm fast bowler has been a consistent member of Pakistan's one-day squad, and played his lone Test match in 2006 against Sri Lanka at Kandy.
"Rao is a good fast bowler for one-day cricket, but we have depth in our fast bowling for test matches," Qadir explained.
The selectors recalled 32-year-old left-handed batsman Asim Kamal for the training camp. Kamal has played 12 Test matches for Pakistan but hasn't featured in the Test side since 2005 due to poor form.
"We have a good cushion in the middle-order with batsmen like Kamal, Faisal Iqbal and uncapped Saeed Bin Nasir," Qadir said.
Fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has been ruled out of the Test series after he was advised to undergo a knee operation following the one-day series defeat to Sri Lanka in January.
Training squad: Younis Khan, Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed, Khurram Manzoor, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq, Faisal Iqbal, Asim Kamal, Fawad Alam, Bazid Khan, Saeed Bin Nasir, Sohail Tanvir, Yasir Arafat, Danish Kaneria, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Umar Gul, Mohammad Talha, Sohail Khan, Abdul Rauf, Saeed Ajmal, Sarfraz Ahmed.
