KARACHI: Pakistan head-coach Mohammad Al Shamlan on Sunday called up six goalkeepers amongst the 23 probables for the national team camp ahead of their international friendly against Afghanistan.

The camp begins from Monday with the match against the Afghans on Feb 6 to act as warm-up for the team ahead of qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup and the AFC U-23 Championship in March.

Shamlan has tried three goalkeepers over the last year including Wapda’s Muzammil Hussain, Saqib Hanif of Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) and Habib Bank Limited’s (HBL) Ehsanullah.

But he’s also called up Pakistan Premier Football League (PPFL) champions K-Electric’s gloveman Ghulam Nabi and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) custodian Ghazanfar Yasin who helped his side finish third in the PPFL alongside Shahbaz.

“We need to be solid at the back because the way I want the team to play is from the back,” Shamlan told Dawn last week. “A solid goalkeeper means we can focus on playing attacking football.”

For now, Shamlan has called up three strikers but the forward-line is set to be boosted by the arrival of Denmark-based frontman Hassan Bashir who will join the camp alongside Pakistan’s other foreign-based players namely Zesh Rehman, Otis Khan and Sami Malik later this week.

Probables:

Goalkeepers: Muzammil Hussain, Saqib Hanif, Ehsanullah, Ghazanfar Yasin, Ghulam Nabi, Shahbaz; Defenders: Mohammad Bilal, Muhammad Sufyan, Shehram Baber, Mohsin, Naveed, Amjad; Midfielders: Najeeb-ur-Rehman, Mohammad Riaz, Bilawal-ur-Rehman, Faheem Shah, Subhan, Habibullah, Mohammad Tahir, Saadullah; Forwards: Gul Mohammad, Mansoor Khan, Mohammad Tahir.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2015

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