Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Shoaib and Gul picked by Pakistan

Umar Gul
Pakistan will want Umar Gul's ankle injury to clear up quickly
Pakistan have named two injured fast bowlers in their 15-man squad for the World Cup and given their leading Test spinner Danish Kaneria a spot.

Shoaib Akhtar (hamstring and knee) and Umar Gul (ankle) are both struggling to be fit for Pakistan's first match on 13 March against hosts West Indies.

Kaneria, 26, has had a stop-start career in one-day internationals, the last of his 16 matches in June 2006.

Spinner Abdur Rehman and all-rounder Azhar Mahmood have both been dropped.

Two further injured seamers, Mohammad Sami and Shabbir Ahmed, were not named while all-rounder Shahid Afridi was in the 15 - but will be unavailable for the first two matches as he serves a ban.

Shoaib and Gul can both be replaced if they fail to recover from injuries. The Pakistan Cricket Board is also worried about the fitness of fast bowler Mohammad Asif.

The entire squad is due to undergo drugs tests on Friday. It follows last year's controversy when Shoaib and Asif tested positive for nandrolone, but then had bans lifted on appeal after claiming they had not deliberately taken the banned steroid.

The PCB has denied newspaper claims, published on Tuesday, that the pair have been secretly tested since then.

"The report is utterly baseless. [The] PCB reiterates that it will conduct testing of all players selected for the ICC World Cup 2007 in the West Indies on February 16, 2007, once the Pakistan squad returns from their tour of South Africa," the Board said in a statement.

Leg-spinner Kaneria, meanwhile, was delighted to hear of his inclusion in the squad.

"I think the spinners are going to have a lot of success in the World Cup as many of the pitches have been relaid and traditionally conditions there help the spinners.

"I am not going to experiment if I get a chance to play. It is going to be wicket to wicket and all about patience. I will just deliver what my captain wants," he said.


Pakistan squad: Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Younis Khan, Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal (wkt), Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Asif, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Rao Iftikhar.

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