Kamran droped for Asia Cup
Talented, young wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed replaced out-of-form Kamran Akmal as national selectors named twenty probables for the Asia Cup tournament here on Thursday.
The selection committee, headed by Salahuddin Ahmed, also announced that a short training camp will begin in Karachi from Friday after which a final 15-member squad will be announced on Sunday. “We have decided to check some new players in the camp. Therefore, the (final) team will now be announced on Sunday,” Salahuddin told reporters after the meeting.
The omission of Kamran had been on the cards after his poor show with the gloves in recent months although the selectors clarified that he had been given a rest. “We wanted to give him some rest since he has been playing non-stop cricket for the last four years,” said Salahuddin.
“Kamran is still our first choice as wicket-keeper but hopefully after taking a break and playing some domestic matches he will be in a better shape to perform his duties,” he stated.
Asked why was Kamran not rested against lowly teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh which toured early this year, the chief selector responded that his (current) form in the Bangladesh tri-series and earlier in the IPL clearly showed that the wicketkeeper-batsman required a break at this stage.
In the tri series, Kamran remained off colour with the bat, scoring just 49 runs in three matches but managed to hold six catches. Earlier, in the home series against Bangladesh, Kamran had scored 222 runs in four innings and held 10 catches.
“We selected Sohail Tanvir and Misbah-ul-Haq for the Twenty20 World Championship — a high-profile event — and they both performed well. We hope that Sarfraz will also excel in the Asia Cup as he has enough talent,” said Salahuddin.
Sources close to Kamran, however, told Dawn that he was anticipating the decision of his removal, especially after the PCB Chairman had pointed out his weaknesses in an e-mail sent to the team manager Talat Ali in Dhaka last week.
Kamran’s ouster, however, is likely to force Captain Shoaib Malik or Shahid Afridi to open the innings or include an extra bowler in his place. But Malik, who reached Lahore last night from India, said it was premature to say that he would open the innings. “Kamran’s expulsion is a unanimous decision and I have been taken into confidence on it. But at the moment I am not in a position to say that I will open the innings,” Malik stated.
“We still have to shortlist the selection to final 15 and then to the playing eleven. So every option can be considered with the team management before each match. Therefore nothing is final,” the captain added. “We also have Nasir Jamshed, a regular opener, in the side who can open the innings with Salman Butt.”
Meanwhile, Salahuddin said as India had a good number of left-handed batsmen in their line-up, the selectors had decided to call up more spinners including Saeed Ajmal and Mansoor Amjad, besides Fawad Alam. However, left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman could not get the selectors’ nod.
Though Yasir Hameed, Mansoor Amjad, Abdur Rauf, Saeed Ajmal and Naumanullah are included in the list of probables, they have little chance of selection in the 15-member squad.
The players will assemble on Friday at the National Stadium, Karachi to have the first training session at 3pm.
Probables: Shoaib Malik, Salman Butt, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam, Sohail Tanvir, Sarfraz Ahmed (wicket-keeper), Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar, Sohail Khan, Wahab Riaz, Nasir Jamshed, Yasir Hameed, Bazid Khan, Naumanullah, Mansoor Amjad, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rauf.
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