July 04, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 18, 1428

LAHORE, July 3: Pakistan’s junior cricket squad for the tour of England was announced on Monday, with some surprising selections in the 15-member team.

Pakistan juniors will play two four-day games and five one-dayers in England from July 25 to Aug 25.

However, surprisingly many players who had been performing well in the past to keep their places in the junior team remained less impressive in the inter-district championship despite a three-week training stint at the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

Vice-captain of the England-bound squad Shan Masood, who displayed good performance on the last tour of Australia, could only score 28 runs in four matches he played at the inter-district event. Similarly, Ahmed Shahzad (five matches, 102 runs), Adil Amin (one match, 2), Usman Salahuddin (five matches, 98), captain of the junior team Imad Wasim (three matches, 36), all show a decline in their performance after attending the NCA training.

Moreover, pacer Azhar Attari, who had not been included in the probables’ list, appeared in the trials held at Muridke Academy in May for the team’s selection, got a place in the junior team. Azhar was only called during the trials after the frontline bowlers had been exhausted during the trials.

In the inter-district competition Azhar could only grab 12 wickets.

However, the selectors, claiming they had been watching the matches of the said contest for picking outstanding players, ignored the performances of top bowlers including the highest wicket taker paceman Mohammad Sharif (28 wickets), Sajid Ali (25) and Farhan Ahmad (24).

But chairman junior selection committee Col Naushad Ali had a different view regarding the junior team’s selection.

“We have selected the best team for the (England) tour and Azhar has an excellent arm and hopefully he will deliver in England,” Naushad told Dawn. “I admit many boys who were selected (for the England trip) did not show their best in the inter-district championship, despite having attended the NCA training, but I think the two-day (inter-district) competition is not the real criterion to check the players’ potential.”

He also said that initially 14 players would go to England for the two four-day games, adding that Kamran Hussain, the 15th member, had been selected for the one-dayers. After the four-dayers, one player, to be named by the team management, will come back to be replaced by Kamran, he stated.

The squad and reserve players will attend a training camp in Abbottabad from July 5 to 20 under Mansoor Rana.

Pakistan squad: Imad Wasim (captain), Shan Masood (vice-captain), Ahmed Shahzad, Umar Amin, Adil Amin, Ali Asad, Usman Salahuddin, Taimur Ali, Shahzaib Khan, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Aamir, Mohammad Ramiz, Gulraiz Sadaf (wicket-keeper), Azhar Attari, Kamran Hussain.

Reserves: Mohammad Hussain (wicket-keeper), Rahatullah, Junaid Nasir, Ahmed Iqbal.