March 17, 2007	Saturday	Safar 27, 1428

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LAHORE, March 16: The national junior selection committee has surprised many by including some under-performing players in the Under-19 team on Friday for the Australian tour which commences from April 7.

Though the selection of right-hand-batsman Ahmed Shahzad as captain seems fairly justified, the inclusion of Imad Wasim as vice-captain is, indeed, a surprising one.

Ahmed played for Lahore Shalimar in the last national U-19 season and remained top scorer with 521 runs in four matches but Imad, a slow-left-arm orthodox bowler from Islamabad, has no significant achievements to show in the national junior competitions. In fact, he took only 10 wickets in the three-day competitions and just five in one-dayers.

Shan Masood from Karachi (411 runs), Umar Amin from Rawalpindi (436), Ali Jawad from Karachi (328) and Taimur Ali from Quetta (375) form the nucleus of Pakistan batting and have been selected entirely on merit. However, the omission of Peshawar’s Mohammad Jibran (418 runs), Fazal Subhan from Karachi (379) and Wajid Khan of Abbottabad (360 runs) has raised quite a few eye brows in the cricketing circles.

It is also amazing that mediocre players like Zeeshan Mushtaq (Islamabad, 267 runs) and Mohammad Laeeq from Faisalabad (270 runs, and 14 wickets) have been preferred over the deserving candidates.

Gulraiz Sadaf is the only one wicket-keeper included in the squad. The pace quartet comprises Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Rameez, Rahatullah and Junaid Khan while Shahzaib Ahmed is the only specialist leg-spinner in the squad.

Selector Abdul Raquib will accompany the team as manager while Mohsin Sheikh is appointed as coach and Faisal Hayat is the physio.

PCB director cricket operations Saleem Altaf said Mohsin was appointed as coach for his vast experience as coach in Australia. Mohsin, who is a Level-II coach who came all way from Australia to join the National Cricket Academy (NCA) as coach. "As a youth coach, Mohsin is the best choice for the tour," Saleem said.