The National Selection Committee headed by Inzamam ul Haq after consultation with head coach Mickey Arthur and Test Captain Misbah ul Haq, has announced the Test squad for the West Indies tour. Pakistan Team will play 3 Test matches against West Indies.
“The Test team has been selected keeping in mind the conditions in West Indies and the recent performances of players during the domestic and international season. The team is a fine blend of experience and youth and believe that team will do well in the tour”, said chief selector Inzamam ul Haq.
Pakistan Squad
1. Misbah Ul Haq (Captain)
2. Ahmad Shahzad
3. Azhar Ali
4. Shan Masood
5. Baber Azam
6. Younis Khan
7. Asad Shafiq
8. Sarfraz Ahmad (WK- V.Captain)
9. Usman Salahuddin
10. Yasir Shah
11. Shahdab Khan
12. Muhammad Asghar
13. Muhammad Amir
14. Wahab Riaz
15. Hassan Ali
16. Muhammad Abbas
Misbah-ul-Haq will lead Pakistan in the Tests, which follow the three-match one-day series starting in Guyana on Friday.
Inzamam said Shadab had performed better than predicted.
“Everyone felt that Shadab has performed beyond expectations so we thought he should also be used for the five-day format,” he said.
Uncapped medium paceman Mohammad Abbas, 27, won selection thanks to his performance in domestic matches, having taken 61 and 71 wickets in the last two home seasons respectively.
Middle-order batsman Usman Salahuddin, 26, was selected for the first time in a Test team after failing in the two one-day internationals on the tour of West Indies in 2011.
But wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal, who scored 1,035 in the country’s premier first-class tournament and Asif Zakir — 853 runs in the same tournament — were overlooked.
Inzamam defended Kamran’s exclusion.
“We gave Kamran chances in the recent Twenty20 (in West Indies) and he is in the one-day squad but in the presence of the main wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed it was tough to get him in the Test side,” he said.
Openers Ahmed Shehzad and Shan Masood staged comebacks in the Test side but there was no place for Mohammad Hafeez, who was also overlooked for Pakistan’s last two Test series in New Zealand and Australia.
The first Test starts in Jamaica on April 21, the second in Barbados on April 30 and the third in Dominica on May 10.
