KARACHI, Sept 27: It seemed that the embattled Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq had little say during the session at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore on Thursday before the list of probables and Pakistan ‘A’ squad to face South Africa was made public.

Information gathered by Dawn indicated that the 39-year-old Misbah virtually failed to get his way in when the think tank of Pakistan cricket assembled for several hours to finalise 28 names for the upcoming two-match Test series against South Africa.

Apart from selectors Azhar Khan, Saleem Jaffer and Farrukh Zaman, the meeting was also attended by head coach Dav Whatmore and team manager Moin Khan plus of course, Misbah. While most of the selections were, more or less, spot on, the exclusion of Taufiq Umar was totally inexplicable considering his impressive stats against South Africa (730 runs at 60.83 in six Tests.

According to media reports the day before (Wednesday), Misbah was pressing for the inclusion of experienced opening batsman — who returned home without playing in the three-match Test series in South Africa earlier in the year because of a leg injury — and had publicly backed his case for selection. But the next day, Taufiq’s name was glaringly found missing from the list of probables circulated through a press release of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

Reliable sources said that being under pressure in the wake of the shock defeat to Zimbabwe in Harare almost a fortnight ago, Misbah found himself cornered when the deliberations started.

“Misbah was left with no choice but to agree with the selectors. Taufiq’s case was discussed but the selectors pleaded that it is the right moment to move forward and start planning for the [2015] World Cup from now onwards. It is no point keep on picking players who had been tried over and over again,” the sources remarked. “The selectors are keen on building a decent pool [of players] for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.”

But when pointed out as to why the horribly out-of-form Mohammad Hafeez had being named among the lot for the South Africa series, the sources claimed that the think tank kept faith with the Pakistan Twenty20 skipper because of his better form in limited-overs cricket.

“This may sound a bit weird that a player who has been struggling to make runs in Test matches this year has been selected in the list probables. But this sort of policy is nothing new in our system,” the sources explained. “But if Taufiq Umar has been overlooked for being not in the best of form then how Hafeez gets picked? How come the form in other formats [ODI and Twenty20] can justify his inclusion for Test matches, the selectors do name in the final squad?

“Maybe Hafeez is a luckier cricketer than Taufiq otherwise there is no justification in even having him in the list of probables particularly after gauging his poor run of scores [102 in 10 innings] in Tests this year.”

With batting, generally Pakistan’s weak link in recent years especially at the top of the order, the decision to neglect Taufiq for the second straight tour running could backfire with disastrous consequences.

“It won’t come as a surprise if Hafeez is found opening the innings against South Africa in Abu Dhabi with Khurram Manzoor because Pakistan think tank won’t risk either Shan Masood or Ahmed Shehzad against a bowling line-up containing Dale Steyn,” the sources predicted.

“There could be a debate on Taufiq’s form and admittedly it wasn’t that good last season. But still he was selected for the South Africa tour earlier in the year on the basis of his past track record against them. If the selectors believe in continuity then they should have included an experienced batsman like Taufiq now as well.

“The defeat against Zimbabwe was embarrassing but if we lose badly against South Africa it would be a crushing blow for Pakistan who need to garner as much as experience in the squad to at least compete on equal footing,” the sources concluded.

Meanwhile, the selectors have been extremely busy during the past few days, travelling around the country to conduct trials of the regional outfits for the forthcoming domestic season.