LAHORE, July 24: The national selection committee on Tuesday dropped talented middle-order batsman Asim Kamal but included five other probables in the third and final phase of national training camp which commences at the National Stadium, Karachi from Friday.

Asim’s exclusion is, indeed, surprising since he was a part of the 22 probables who attended the second phase of the camp which concluded at the Gaddafi Stadium on Monday.

The newcomers who have been included in Karachi camp are fast bowler Mohammad Irshad, batsmen Shahid Yousuf, Khalid Lateef, Khurram Manzoor and left-arm fast bowler Sohail Tanvir.

Chief selector Salahuddin Ahmad explained that the final squad of 15 members for the forthcoming Twenty20 World Championship would be selected at the end of the third phase on Aug 6.

Though Younis Khan, who is currently playing county cricket in England, is not included in the list of 26 probables he is most likely to be selected in the 15-member squad. The selected squad would then attend the final phase of the camp at Gaddafi Stadium from Aug 19-26.

Pakistan is likely to play a four-nation Twenty20 tournament in Kenya before heading for the World Championship to be held in South Africa in September.

Probables: Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sami, Najaf Shah, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Irshad, Khurram Manzoor, Shoaib Akhtar, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Rehman, Mohammad Hafeez, Rao Iftikhar, Imran Farhat, Sohail Tanveer, Yasir Hameed, Naveed Latif, Shoaib Malik, Faisal Iqbal, Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul, Kamran Akmal, Salman Butt, Shahid Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Imran Nazir, Khalid Latif.