LAHORE, April 22: Fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar was a surprise inclusion in the list of 21 probables announced by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)’s national selection committee for a short training camp while several deserving players were shown the door at the end of trial match series here on Tuesday.

However, Inzamam-ul-Haq, the seasoned batsman, failed to find a place. Both Shoaib and Inzamam were sidelined alongwith six other senior players for their lacklustre performance in the recent World Cup in southern Africa.

The training camp gets under way at Gaddafi Stadium from Wednesday before the selectors pick a 15-member squad for the forthcoming triangular series in Sri Lanka, also involving New Zealand.

Originally, a list of 25 probables was sent to PCB Chairman, Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, on Monday for final approval.

Even though Inzamam played only one trial match in which he  scored 89 before retiring hurt he was unable to impress chief selector Aamir Sohail. In sharp contrast, Shoaib failed to produce any worthwhile performance in these matches. His return in two matches was just two wickets for 72 runs.

Yet Aamir successfully campaigned for Shoaib to be included in the final list of 21 players.

“We want to retain the same batting line which delivered in the Sharjah Cup, therefore, we did not include Inzamam. The  team needed a strike bowler in Sharjah Cup which forced the  selectors to select Shoaib,” was Aamir’s flimsy explanation.

When reminded that Shoaib performed moderately in the  trial matches, Aamir said that he was only included in the probables of the camp and not in the team. Now it remains to be whether the controversial fast bowler, who also looked out of sorts in the recent NBP One-day Patron’s Cup, succeeds in finding his name in the Colombo-bound squad.

Two other pace bowlers, Mohammad Zahid and Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan, were not considered for the camp. Zahid’s omission is debatable since the poor chap did not play a single match in the Sharjah Cup.  

However, their exclusion now was because of poor showing in the trial matches. Zahid conceded 155 runs in three matches and claimed two wickets. Naveed in two matches gave away 91 runs for a solitary wicket.

Among the new faces in the list of probables are relatively unknown Mansoor Amjad and diminutive batsman Faisal Athar. Leg-spinner Mansoor Amjad, a 16 year-old from Sialkot was a member of Pakistan squad which took part in the Under-15 Asia Cup in UAE recently. Mansoor, who claimed just four wickets in three trial games, was preferred over Adil Nisar.

Adil must consider himself extremely unlucky to be overlooked. He captured eight wickets for 87 runs with his part-time slow left-armers besides scoring 130 runs in three matches.

 Hyderabad’s Faisal Athar made 117 in the last trial fixture on Tuesday but his name was pencilled in beforehand on the basis of his mediocre performance in three previous games in which he made 20, two and 31. , Test reject Qaiser Abbas must offer his gratitude to the selectors for including him in the final list despite making nine runs in one match.

Batsmen Farhan Adil and Yasir Hameed also performed moderately but they at least deserve to be named after consistent displays in domestic competitions.

Others to miss out despite performing well in the trial series were opening batsman Kashif Siddique (132 runs), all-rounder Babar Naeem (154 runs and 11 wickets), Test discard Imran Farhat (184 runs in three matches) and Naumanullah (144 runs in two games).

Another notable absentee is former Pakistan skipper Moin Khan.

Following probables will report in the camp:

Taufiq Umar, Mohammad Hafeez, Faisal Athar, Yasir Hameed, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Faisal Iqbal, Naved Latif, Misbah-ul-Haq, Farhan Adil, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Rashid Latif, Danish Kaneria, Qaiser Abbas, Umar Gul, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Akhtar, Shabbir Ahmed, Mansoor Amjad and Jaffar Nazir.