LAHORE, Sept 30: A number of deserving players have failed to get the selectors’ nod to take part in the forthcoming National Twenty20 cricket championship for the Sialkot team.

The five-day national event is about to start in Lahore from Oct 4.

The players who were ignored despite their good performance in domestic cricket are: Amer Gulzar, Bilal Azmat, Rana Aqeel Abbas, Faisal Virk, Javed Hussain, Tariq Mahmood and Nadeem Karamat.

However, the inclusion of three cricketers, namely Adeel Malik, Shakeel Ansar and Faisal Naveed in the team is surprising as their performance was not satisfactory.

Adeel is reported to be the brother of Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik.

Amer Gulzar was the captain of Gujranwala U-19 team and he scored a double century in the Seniors Trophy, two centuries and seven fifties.

Fast bowler Rana Aqeel also performed excellently in the Patrons Trophy.

Similarly, Tariq Mahmood, who took 34 wickets in the Seniors Trophy and who also travelled to South Africa with the Pakistan ‘A’ team, failed to get selected.