KARACHI Pakistan sprang no major surprises on Friday as the World Twenty20 defending champions became the first country to name their final 15-man squad for the third edition of the event, to be played in the West Indies from the end of April.
For probably the first time in Pakistan cricket history, a squad was named without a captain as chairman of selectors Mohsin Khan announced his first national side at a crowded media conference here at the National Stadium.
There was no issue as regards the selections since the 15 names read out by the chief selector were more or less the same which were already published in most of Friday's national newspapers.
Therefore, on Friday it became just a mere formality for Mohsin, who was accompanied at the press briefing by fellow selector Saleem Jaffer and PCB's general manager (media) Nadeem Sarwar, to officially announce the squad that will defend the title Pakistan won in England last summer after defeating Sri Lanka in the final.
In the aftermath of Wednesday's severe punishments handed out to seven players at the completion of probe committee report - following the national team's deplorable showing in Australia mainly -, the selectors were literally left with limited options in finalising the squad from the provisional list of 28 after two of the 30 probables — Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan — were each banned for a year.
As widely tipped, versatile all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez returned to the national side for the first time since the inaugural World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa in September 2007. Also making a comeback is veteran batsman Misbah-ul-Haq after a string of strong performances in domestic cricket. He was axed from the national side midway through the Australia tour last Dec.
Nine members of the squad named on Friday - Salman Butt, Fawad Alam, Misbah, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul and Mohammad Aamir - were also members of the squad which Younis Khan successfully led in England last June in World T20.
Yasir Arafat and Mohammad Asif, two among the five-man pace attack named in the current side, were also members of the Pakistan team that played in South Africa.
Following the PCB's drastic measures/penalties announced on Wednesday against some of the leading players in the country, Mohsin faced a barrage of awkward and at times hostile questions during the press briefing, most of which sadly were irrelevant. However, being an elegant Test opening batsman of the 1980s, the chief selector calmly offered a straight bat time and again to the rather aggressive media contingent.
When asked why the squad was being named early when the skipper has not been appointed, Mohsin said “The main reason why the PCB chairman requested us [the selectors] to announce the squad at this point in time is that we all wanted to give the selected players ample time to get both mentally and physically prepared for such an important assignment at the conditioning camp to be set up probably next week.
“The appointment of captain is not our domain because only the chairman has the authority to name him. But I can assure you that we have complete backing of the board chief while picking the squad, which has been finalised in unanimous consensus with the other selectors [including Mohammad Ilyas and Azhar Khan] as well as the two co-opted members of the selection committee [Farrukh Zaman and Asif Baloch].”
Giving his views on the squad, Mohsin admitted in the given circumstances, the best possible set of players have been picked.
Mohsin said the selection of Hafeez would allow Pakistan the luxury of using him as a floating player who can bat anywhere in the order from No 1 to No 7.
Hammad Azam, the all-rounder who played a huge role in guiding Pakistan to the final of the recent Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand, is the only uncapped player selected for shortest format of the game.
The selectors named five reserves too which include paceman Mohammad Sami, wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed and slow left-armer Raza Hasan, who was Hammad's team-mate during the Under-19 Word Cup.
Meanwhile, Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi are the most likely candidates to lead the team in World T20 in the West Indies.
Top seeds Pakistan, who are grouped in Pool 'A' of the 12-team competition, will face Bangladesh on May 1 before taking on Australia the next day in the preliminary round fixtures to be played in St Lucia.
Squad Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez, Khalid Latif, Umar Akmal, Fawad Alam, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Yasir Arafat, Kamran Akmal (wicket-keeper), Hammad Azam, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamir, Mohammad Asif.
Reserves Sarfraz Ahmed (wicket-keeper), Shahzeb Hasan, Mohammad Sami, Naved Yasin, Raza Hasan.
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