LAHORE, Feb 16: Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq expressed his concern on Friday over his own batting form on the recently concluded tour to South Africa.

Talking to reporters after arriving here from South Africa, Inzamam stated his performance was dismal as he scored only 74 runs in the five one-dayers. However, the burly batsman hoped to fare better in the World Cup.

He stated the injury problems to some key players during the South Africa series was the main reason behind Pakistan’s loss in the Test and ODI series, claiming with all the players available Pakistan have the potential to beat any side in the world.

He further said that Pakistan would overcome their shortcomings especially in the fitness department before the World Cup.

Inzamam hoped that all the players would pass the dope tests and that there would be no further crisis in this regard.

On the selection of the World Cup squad, Inzamam opined that the best available team was picked, anticipating that the injured players, who have been chosen for the mega event, would gain fitness in time.

He said the decision of selecting leg-spinner Danish Kaneria for the Caribbean showpiece was taken after considering the nature of the West Indies pitches.

Inzamam admitted that the team still lacked in the opening department and claimed the best available openers -- Imran Nazir and Mohammad Hafeez -- have been selected.

Meanwhile, team’s assistant coach Mushtaq Ahmed acknowledged that the performance of fast bowlers was affected due to the absence of bowling coach Waqar Younis, who was forced to resign, before the start of the South African tour after developing some differences with the PCB chief Dr Nasim Ashraf.

The former Test leg-spinner claimed the team’s performance in the Tests (in South Africa) was not so bad but admitted in the ODIs it was worse, particularly in the last two matches.

About Kaneria, Mushtaq said he could be the trump card in the World Cup as pitches in the Caribbean suit him.

In the meantime, 13 out of 20 players, including four reserves, announced for the World Cup, gave their urine samples here at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for dope tests.

Among them were Inzamam, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Rao Iftikhar, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Umar Gul, Azhar Mahmood, Zulqarnain Haider, Shahid Nazir and Salman Butt.

Meanwhile, the PCB doctor Sohail Saleem was scheduled to reach Karachi last night to take the urine samples of Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Sami and Kaneria.

The dope test of Shoaib Akhtar, who had reached Lahore from London, is likely to be conducted on Saturday evening.

Medium pacer Mohammad Asif, who had left for England directly from South Africa to seek treatment of his elbow, is likely to return home in a couple of days and will go through the sample-giving process.

A PCB spokesman said the samples of all the 20 players would be sent to the WADA-accredited laboratory in Malaysia simultaneously.