KARACHI: Sohail Tanvir was on Wednesday, dropped from Pakistan’s World Cup squad after being declared unfit by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

“The medical panel thinks that though the recovery was good, it still thought Tanvir needs time to get fully fit before competing at international level,” the PCB said in a statement.

Pakistan is replacing Tanvir with left-arm paceman Junaid Khan, 21, who started with the Under-19s alongside promising teenage quick Mohammad Amir.

It will be Khan's debut for the senior Pakistan squad, although he has impressed selectors by amassing 167 wickets in just 35 first-class matches.

Tanvir, meanwhile, protested the decision, saying he is fully fit and prepared for cricket’s showpiece event.

He returned to the Pakistan squad for the tour of New Zealand after recovering from a chronic knee injury, which kept him in out of the national side for two years.

Pakistan play their first match of the World Cup on February 23, against Kenya, while they face Bangladesh on February 15 in a warm-up match in Mirpur.