KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has speeded up its search for the likely replacement for the suspended Saeed Ajmal by inviting Shahzaib Ahmed Khan and Junaid Ilyas to appear at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore on Thursday.

Former Pakistan U-19 leg-spinner Shahzaib, who turned 23 on Monday, has taken 61 wickets in 25 first-class matches since 2007 plus 23 wickets in 16 List ‘A’ fixtures and another eight in eight T20 appearances.

Junaid, 23, has appeared in a handful of first-class games — a total of five — eight List ‘A’ matches while taking a combined haul of 21 wickets. Like his father and former first-class cricketer Ilyas Khan, Junaid is an off-spinner who toured England with the Karachi University team in July.

Ilyas, due to begin his final season as a PCB match referee, was tragically denied making his Test debut when Australia toured Pakistan in 1980 when Tauseef Ahmed appeared from nowhere to provide off-spin option to slow left-armer Iqbal Qasim.

Meanwhile, sources close to the PCB revealed on Wednesday that off-spinners Atif Maqbool and Misbah Khan both have reportedly exceeded the ICC limit of 15 degrees when they were tested at the NCA.

Atif’s bowling action was measured around 30-32 degrees. It was not clear whether the figure was for ‘doosra’. Likewise, Misbah was found to be bowling in the region of 25 degrees.

The sources further said Adnan Rasool had comfortably passed the test since he measured in the range of 10 to 12 degrees. Adnan, who is currently in India with the Lahore Lions squad for the qualifying round of the Champions League T20, has been earmarked as a contender for the ODI and T20 squads for the matches against Australia in the UAE next month.

In the forced absence of Ajmal, the Pakistan think-tank is mulling the bowling options for the two Tests against Australia.

Leg-spinner Yasir Shah has impressed both head coach Waqar Younis and chief selector Moin Khan, and is being seriously considered for the Test squad.

Yasir, the 28-year-old from Swabi, has bagged 270 wickets in 75 first-class games at 24.78 since 2001-02 and is well known to Test and ODI captain Misbah-ul-Haq since both play for Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL).

The plus point for the stocky bowler is his international experience since he has been a regular member of Pakistan ‘A’ side for the past several seasons.

The trio of Misbah, Waqar and Moin are also weighing up the possibility of inducting Zulfiqar Babar in the Test party given the slow left-armer’s vast experience of first-class cricket (345 wickets in 69 matches at 20.80).

The 35-year-old Zulfiqar, who has appeared in seven T20 Internationals after breaking into the Pakistan team on the tour of West Indies last year, played in both Test matches against South Africa last season claiming six wickets.

Zulfiqar is tipped to replace Abdur Rehman who had an indifferent Test series in Sri Lanka where he claimed only four wickets.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2014