LAHORE, Jan 2: Pakistan has decided to recall three players from Australia and send their replacements for the three-nation One-day tournament, involving Pakistan, The West Indies and hosts Australia, starting from Jan 14.

A 17-member Pakistan team is in Australia playing the ongoing three-Test series. Earlier, the selection committee had decided to recall three players without sending any replacements. "A number of fitness problems during the Test series forced us not to reduce the strength of the team.

"Therefore, three One-day specialists will be sent to Australia and the same number of players will come back," chief selector Wasim Bari told Dawn on Sunday. However, Bari said that the names of the players to be recalled and their replacements would be announced after receiving medical reports about the players from the team management.

"We will receive medical reports about Inzamamul Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Sami on Monday which will help us make a decision," Bari said. All-rounder Azhar Mahmood is most likely to replace Abdul Razzaq and the two other players likely to join the squad are Taufiq Umar and Moin Khan.

He replied in the negative when asked if the three replacements would be selected on the basis of their performance in the recently concluded Quaid-i-Azam Trophy. "We will give priority to experience, since it is a tough tournament," hinting at the possible inclusion of seniors like Taufiq, Azhar and Moin.

However, courageous batting by undefeated wicket-keeper/ batsman Kamran Akmal in the third Test could reduce Moin's chances. Asked if the selection committee would give another chance to those senior players who reported unfit when the team needed them during the ongoing Test series or would depend on youngsters who remained fit, Bari just said "let's see".

Captain Inzamamul Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Sami are four seniors who are facing fitness problems. Even the injury-prone pace man Shoaib Akhtar remained fit during the tour, along with youngsters like Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed and Kamran Akmal.

Bari admitted that the youngsters had done their best, despite facing the strongest world side. He said that Salman had played a couple of good innings and although Imran Farhat failed in Australia but he had played some good innings in the series against South Africa and Sri Lanka. Therefore, he said, he saw good prospects for youngsters.

Answering a question, he said that the Pakistan Cricket Board would announce the name of a selector to fill the post which fell vacant because of the resignation of Sultan Rana, who has been appointed Asian Cricket Council (ACC) development secretary.