LAHORE: Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq, experienced player Mohammad Hafeez and some other cricketers who didn’t feature in the Pentangular Cup due to fitness issues, appeared for fitness tests at the NCA here on Monday.

Though the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had not made any announcement till the filing of this report, it is interesting to note that Misbah is still going through fitness tests. He has cleared 90 per cent of the test.

However, the skipper’s fitness is still in question ever since he has faced a hamstring problem in recent past due to which he missed the last three games of the New Zealand ODI series in the UAE.

Mohammad Hafeez.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s 15-member World Cup squad will attend a short training camp that commences here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday.

The camp concludes on Jan 17 after which the Misbah-captained party leaves for New Zealand on Jan 21, where they will play a two-match One-day International series against the Black Caps before the World Cup starting in Australia and New Zealand on Feb 14.

The training at the national camp will be held in two sessions. The gym training will be conducted from 8:00am. While in the second session the players will appear at the Gaddafi Stadium daily to have net practice till 2:00pm.

After attending the camp on Tuesday, Misbah along with PCB chairman Shaharyar M. Khan and team manager Naveed Akram Cheema will address a news conference, during which it is expected that the captain will make an official announcement regarding his latest decision to quit ODI cricket after the World Cup.

Published in Dawn January 13th , 2014

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