Cricket selectors on Wednesday included wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal in Pakistan’s squad for the one-day international (ODI) series against New Zealand after being left out of the Test and Twenty20 squads. He has replaced his younger brother Adnan, who misses out. Test captain Misbahul Haq, who played the first two ODIs against South Africa, also finds a place, while opener Ahmed Shehzad returns to the side, suggesting he is being considered for Pakistan’s World Cup squad. Former captain Shoaib Malik and Fawad Alam have been overlooked.
Kamran has not been part of the national side since the summer tour of England and his absence had been surrounded by confusion, which his return does little to clear up. Speculation linking him to the spot-fixing scandal has been rife, but in October he received written clearance from the International Cricket Council (ICC) stating that he could be picked for Pakistan. Since then, he has been scoring heavily on the domestic circuit. However, he was not ‘given clearance’ to play the Tests and Twenty20s in New Zealand by the PCB’s integrity committee, which did not provide details about why that decision was taken.
The 19-year-old Shehzad, who made a promising debut last year against Australia in the Middle East, played all three Twenty20 games against New Zealand, scoring 83 runs at an average of 27.66 and a strike-rate of 150.90, with a top score of 54. Misbah made 14 and 17 in his two ODIs against South Africa and did not feature in the Twenty20 games against New Zealand. Shahid Afridi has been retained as captain. Local media reports had said PCB chairman Ijaz Butt was ready to strip Afridi off the captaincy, angry at comments made by the all-rounder about three Pakistan cricketers at the centre of a spot-fixing scandal. But the 30-year-old Afridi kept the role despite losing the Twenty20 series against New Zealand last month. Pakistan will play six one-dayers against the hosts, with the first game taking place in Wellington on January 22.
Squad: Shahid Afridi (captain), Muhammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal (wk), Younis Khan, Misbahul Haq, Asad Shafiq, Umer Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Abdul Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Umer Gul, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanveer, Tanveer Ahmed and Ahmed Shehzad