LAHORE, Jan 13: Pakistan would play a Test against hosts Malaysia before the six-nation tournament which starts Jan 18 in Kuala Lumpur, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) said Sunday.
Eariler, the two sides were scheduled to play two Tests on Jan 15 and 16 as warm-up for the contest featuring Japan, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Malaysia, and Pakistan.
However, the secretary of the PHF, Brig Musaratullah Khan could not give the reason when asked why another Test had been reduced.
Speaking at a reception hosted by the PHF in honour of the squad, coach Hanif Khan hoped Sameer Hussain and Salim Khalid would fill the gap created due to non-availability of injured Atif Bashir and Mohammad Nadeem.
The team is scheduled to depart for Malaysia late Sunday night.
SQUAD:
GOALKEEPERS: Mohammad Qasim, Salman Akbar.
FULL-BACKS: Tariq Imran, Sohail Abbas, Ali Raza.
HALF-BACKS: Mohammad Usman, Mohammad Saqlain, Wasim Ahmad, Ghazanfar Ali, Imran Yousaf, Dilawar Hussain.
FORWARDS: Sameer Hussain, Mudassir Ali, Shahbaz Ahmad, Salim Khalid, Mohammad Sarwar (captain), Kashif Jawwad, Mohammad Shabbir.