LAHORE, April 6 Pakistan cricket selectors, while giving pacer Shoaib Akhtar another chance, have made some glaring omissions while announcing the names for the upcoming limited-overs series against Australia and the ICC Twenty20 World Cup.

Chief selector Abdul Qadir announced on Monday a 15-member team for the series against Australia to be held at neutral venues of Dubai and Abu Dhabi from April 22 to May 7, and 11 for a practice match before the same series, besides 30 probables for the World Cup to be held in England in June.

Three players affiliated with the controversial Indian Cricket League (ICL), namely, Abdul Razzaq, Imran Nazir and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan are also included in the World Cup list with their final inclusion depending on getting approval from the ICC.

Shoaib, who had been dropped from the team for the last One-day International against Sri Lanka held in Lahore on Jan 24 due to his poor performance, later missed the two-Test series due to a knee injury. But he appeared in the recently-concluded One-day Cup and sent down 28 overs in three matches in order to prove his fitness. He also cleared his medical fitness test conducted at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) last week.

“Shoaib is an asset. When fit, he has always been the Pakistan team's first choice,” Qadir told reporters while announcing the players.

“Shoaib bowled in the fitness test with an impressive speed of 140 plus and some of his deliveries were measured at 149. He is looking impressive,” he said further.

When asked if this could be Shoaib's last series as his past one-and-a-half years' performance had not been impressive, Qadir said that the bowler had improved his fitness level from level-7 to 8 and now it was the job of captain Younis Khan and coach Intikhab Alam to devise a plan in order to get maximum benefit from him. Shoaib too, he said, will have to deliver.

But the three central-contracted players, namely, the consistent performer Abdur Rauf, Mohammad Hafeez and Samiullah Niazi have found no place in the list of 56 players. Moreover, the selection committee also ignored its own recent choices, the fast bowlers Mohammad Talha and Sohail Khan, about whom they said were great future prospects.

Ignoring the five players, who happened to be the selectors' and team management's own choices only two months back, without even providing them with proper chances, shows the selectors' lack of confidence in their own selection.

Having no satisfactory answer regarding their omission, the chief selector said that they are all good and talented players but those picked are also good.

The lanky medium-fast bowler Rauf, who has remained a major victim of the PCB establishment for the last decade took 84 wickets this season, including the 10 he took in the final of the Pentangular Cup, the country's toughest domestic competition. Rauf took 55 wickets in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, 19 in the Pentangular Cup and 10 in the One-day Cup, getting an aggregate of 84, to become the overall highest wicket-taker of the season.

“Rauf is a good bowler but I think he should have played for the country three years before,” Qadir said while hinting at his age.

About missing three central-contracted players (Hafeez, Rauf, Samiullah), Qadir had another unsatisfactory reply. He said that they could have been selected had they not picked the three ICL players in their place.

Qadir claimed he had no personal grudge against any of the players as all had been selected after taking the captain and coach into confidence.

He said that leg-spinner Danish Kaneria had been included in the Twenty20 World Cup squad on the recommendation of Younis Khan.

About the inclusion of Nasir Jamshed in place of Khurram Manzoor, who was the second best scorer of Pakistan in the three ODI series against Sri Lanka, Qadir said that both were good openers but the consensus was on Nasir.

When pointed out that Imran Farhat too was a good product for Twenty20 besides the three ICL players, he said that the three picked seemed best to him.

About prolific batsman Mohammad Yousuf, Qadir said that he is no doubt a great player but he is best for Test cricket, not one-day or Twenty20.

Qadir also expressed the hope that the selected team would perform well and be quite able to beat Australia.

Pakistan play five One-day Internationals and one Twenty20 against Australia.

Eleven players selected for the series will play a practice match against Pakistan on April 15. They are to return to Pakistan after that.

Squads

For Australia series

Younis Khan (captain), Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Arafat, Rao Iftikhar, Fawad Alam, Ahmed Shahzad.

For practice match

Yasir Hameed, Sarfraz Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Azhar Ali, Faisal Iqbal, Umar Akmal, Khalid Latif, Yasir Shah, Aizaz Cheema, Mohammad Aamir, Naveed Arif.

For Twenty20 World Cup

Younis Khan (captain), Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed, Khalid Latif, Shahzaib Hasan, Umar Amin, Ahmed Shahzad, Misbah-ul-Haq, Faisal Iqbal, Fawad Alam, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Yasir Arafat, Kamran Younas, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar, Aizaz Cheema, Mohammad Aamir, Wahab Riaz, Imran Ali, Abdur Rehman, Danish Kaneria, Yasir Shah, Kamran Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmad, Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Imran Nazir.