Afridi, Naveed axed, Hameed recalled

LAHORE—All rounder Shahid Afridi and medium pace bowler Rana Naveed ul Hasan have been dropped from the 15-members squad for the first two test matches against West Indies while pace bowler Samiullah Naizi is the new face.
The selected team members are Muhammad Hafeez, Imran Farhat, Younis Khan, Muhammad Yousaf,Inzamam ul Haq (captain), Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Danish Kaneria,Sami ullah Niazi, Yasir Hameed, Shahid Nazir, Faisal Iqbal, Abdul rehman, Umer Gul and Shoaib Malik.
The team was named at a press conference held by chief selector, Wasim Bari who was flanked by selectors Iqbal Qasim and Ihtesham ud din. Also present was Director, Media and Marketing, Dr Ahsan Hameed Malik.
“The squad is the choice of selectors who consulted team’s captain Inzamam and coach Bob Woolmer”, Wari said while answering a question. Danish replaced Afridi and Naveed’s place has been taken by pace bowler Shahid Nazir.
Justifying omission of Afridi and Naveed, the chief selector said, their performance was not up to mark during the tour of England and in the recently concluded ICC Champions Trophy in India. “Left handed Sami is a good prospect in the pace bowling and we believe with his inclusion the strength of the team will be boosted”, said Bari. “Our job is to select the best available side and rest depends on the team management to plan and to get best use of the abilities of the players and we are confident that team will perform upto the expectations”, he asserted. He said the squad is for the first two test matches and changes could be made in the team for the third test in case certain players do not perform upto a required level. “Domestic matches are in progress and most of the players are playing in it and we can pick players for the third test from them”, he said.
Answering a question, he said, pace bowler Muhammad Sami has been overlooked because of lack of form and he along with other players including opener Salman Butt and Rana Naveed has been asked to continue playing in the domestic matches to improve and there are chances of their selection provided they struck impressive show in the matches.
Iqbal Qasim expressed his satisfaction over the selected squad and said selectors took into consideration all the requirements of the team in the absence of banned bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Muhammad Asif. Pakistan have recalled opener Yasir Hameed for the first two tests against West Indies and have included rookie fast bowler Samiullah Niazi in their side. The two tests start on Nov. 11 and 19 in Lahore and Multan.—Agencies