ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s hopes of clearing Davis Cup’s second round against the Philippines faded as Aisam-ul-Haq’s name was scratched from the draws on Thursday due to his being stuck in a ranking tournament in the USA.

The Pakistan team had landed in Manila on July 2 without Aisam almost eight days ahead of the best-of-five tie against the hosts.

Team coach Rashid Malik told Dawn from Manila: ‘Our main weapon [Aisam] could not reach here in time and we were left with no other option but to replace him with Jibran Khan, one of our reserve players, against a better Philippines side.’

Pakistan, who won the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group-I contest in 2005 to reach the World Group playoffs, have been languishing in the lower rungs of the competition for the last few years.

‘You cannot have your name in two tournaments at one time and as Aisam is currently busy in a point-based tournament in the USA, we just cannot enter his name in the Davis Cup-II tie,’ said Pakistan’s former No 1 Rashid.

‘I know we don’t have our key man but we are still hopeful of giving our opponents a tough fight,’ he asserted.

A victory over the Philippines will put Pakistan in the Group-II final.

He said: ‘Aisam was Aqeel Khan’s strong partner in the doubles event while a clear threat to his opponents in the singles category and losing him is a great psychological loss for his teammates.’

Meanwhile, according to the coach, Aqeel is now the No 1 player in the Pakistani side and there would be great pressure on him in the doubles event because of the energy-sapping weather conditions in Manila.