LAHORE: Pakistan has made several changes to its ‘A’ team, also including Test off-spinner Saeed Ajmal, for the remaining two matches of the home one-day series against Kenya.
The matches are being staged here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday and Saturday.
Currently, 37-year-old Ajmal, who has played 35 Tests and 111 ODIs for Pakistan, is banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for an illegal bowling action.
Though the PCB has made seven changes but Ajmal was included especially to give him an opportunity to assess any recovery in his bowling action, which has been declared illegal by the ICC for crossing arm-bend to an average level of 40 to 50 degrees against the permitted limit of 15 degrees.
Pakistan ‘A’ have already claimed the series by winning the first three matches of the five-match series.
Meanwhile, Test and international players Sharjeel Khan, Sami Aslam, Anwar Ali, Ehsan Adil, Mohammad Talha and Imran Khan were relieved from Pakistan ‘A’ team to replace them with Mukhtar Ahmed, Umar Siddique, Zafar Gohar, Ahmed Jamal, Zia-ul-Haq, Mir Hamza and Zohaib Ahmed.
Zafar had already been included as they had played the third game on Monday. Zia had destroyed Kenya with a haul of five wickets for nine runs.
The fourth game of the series was to be held on Thursday but it was deferred for one day due to the dastardly terror attack on an Army Public School in Peshawar martyring around 144 students and their teachers and other staff on Tuesday.
Now both the teams will play back-to-back matches on Friday and Saturday, before the visiting Kenyans return to their country on Sunday.
Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2014