Shahid Afridi dropped, Younis Khan back in ODI team for India tour

Veteran all-rounder and former captain Shahid Afridi has been axed for the One Day International (ODI) series against India later this month. He will be part of the Twenty20 setup though.

The Green Shirts are due to visit India for ODI and T20 series. Mohammad Hafeez will continue as captain in the shortest version of the game, while Misbah-ul-Haq retains ODI captaincy.

While dropping Shahid Afridi for the ODIs, the national selectors have called back Younis Khan and Umar Gul. Both players missed Pakistan’s previous contest against Australia in UAE.

Afridi, who captained Pakistan in the ICC World Cup 2011, has not done anything special over the past few months. In his last 10 one-dayers, the 32-year-old scored only 76 runs, and took just five wickets.

Shoaib Malik is another player who will represent the country only in T20s. On the other hand, Abdul Razzaq has not been given the opportunity to join the side. Iqbal Qasim, the chief selector, has said that it is a good time to bring in some youngsters.

“We have selected a balanced team with the consensus of the selection committee, both the captains and the coach with a hope that these teams will give good results on the India tour," Qasim told reporters.

"We have selected Afridi in the Twenty20 squad only and have given Zulfiqar Babar a chance in both the teams as he has been performing well in domestic cricket," said Qasim of the uncapped 34-year-old left-arm spinner.

Imran Nazir, who played entire T20 World Cup, failed to retain his place in the side, where Asad Shafiq and Raza Hasan are not available due to injury problems. After playing a couple of T20 matches, the two sides will lock horns in three ODIs, scheduled
to be played respectively at Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi.

Twenty20 Squad: Mohammad Hafeez (capt), Nasir Jamshed, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal, Umar Amin, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Sohail Tanveer, Umar Gul, Asad Ali, Zulfiqar Babar, Ahmed Shahzad

One-day squad: Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Nasir Jamshed, Haris Sohail, Kamran Akmal, Saeed Ajmal, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Umar Gul, Zulfiqar Babar, Imran Farhat, Umar Akmal, Anwar Ali.

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Dec 11 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry