LAHORE, Jan 10: A 15-member Pakistan Junior cricket team with Immad Wasim as its captain has been announced for back-to-back assignments on Thursday.

First, the team will feature in a three-nation tournament to be held in Sri Lanka from Jan 18. Besides Pakistan and hosts, the third participating team is England. The second big assignment is to defend the title in the World Cup to be held in Malaysia in Feb-March.

Though the junior selectors preferred to retain experienced players in the team, it gave a surprise by including an upcoming left-arm orthodox Ahsan Mirza. The lad from Karachi had no significant achievement in the last Inter-region U-19 competition.

“Ahsan is very talented and has been included in the team on the recommendations of all the members of the selection committee as well junior coaches,” chief selector Naushad Ali told Dawn.

“Ahsan is just 15 years old who bowls Chinaman, also having the quality to bowl googly,” the chief selector said.

“Ahsan performances are impressive at U-15 level and we preferred him over some players of Inter-region U-19, tournament for his extra ordinary skill with the leather,” he claimed.

Immad, Ali Asad, Ahmed Shehzad, Shan Masood (vice-captain), Umer Amin, Usman Salahuddin, Mohammad Rameez and Junaid Khan all have had an association with the junior team for the last two years and have toured various countries.

Fast bowler Azhar Attari, who was a surprise inclusion for the last tour of Australia and England, again came in after missing out the home series against Bangladesh. His performance on Australia and England tours was not at par, thus he had been dropped for the home series against Bangladesh, but again managed to impress the selectors at the Inter-region (Under-19) event.

“We have also announced five reserves players and every change will be made from it, till the World Cup,” the chief selector claimed.

Team:

Immad Wasim (captain), Ali Asad, Ahmed Shehzad, Shan Masood (vice-captain), Umer Amin, Umair Mir, Usman Salahuddin, Shahzaib Ahmed, Umer Akmal, Mohammad Rameez, Mohammad Amir, Adil Raza, Junaid Khan, Azhar Attari, Ahsan Mirza.

Reserves: Abdul Ameer, Jibran Khan, Hamza Zaheer, Mohammad Yasin, Junaid Nadir.