KARACHI: Leg-spinner Yasir Shah and fast bowler Sohail Khan were the biggest beneficiaries on Wednesday when the duo was named in the final 15-man Pakistan squad for the forthcoming World Cup.

But there were no places for Asad Shafiq, Sohail Tanvir, Anwar Ali, Zulfiqar Babar and Nasir Jamshed — all of whom played in Pakistan’s most recent ODI series against New Zealand in the UAE.

Also returning to the side – that was approved by the Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Shaharyar Mohammad Khan shortly before the official announcement — are middle-order batsman Sohaib Maqsood and pace bowlers Junaid Khan and Ehsan Adil who have all now fully recovered from injuries.

Sohaib Maqsood, Yasir Shah also named in 15

Moin Khan, chairman of the national selection committee, while acknowledging that the squad lacks all-rounders — apart from seasoned Shahid Afridi who will be participating in his fifth World Cup and Haris Sohail — observed that the 15 were picked after lengthy deliberations over the make-up of the team during the past couple of days.

“Obviously we have taken gambles with some of the selections after developing consensus with the captain [Misbah-ul-Haq] and head coach [Waqar Younis] who were here yesterday [Tuesday] during our discussions. The entire selection committee is confident that this squad will perform to its potential in the current scenario,” Moin said while unveiling the squad at a crowded media conference at the National Stadium.

The 30-year-old Sohail, who was not named in the provisional World Cup and who played the last of his five One-day Internationals against Zimbabwe at Harare in Sept 2011 in the same game in which Yasir made his debut, has been rewarded for an outstanding domestic season, while the selectors were not willing to take risks with Umar Gul’s current fitness.

In the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship Gold League competition the Malakand-born speedster captured 64 wickets for Port Qasim Authority to finish as the highest wicket-taker.

But what really persuaded the selectors to go for Sohail was his excellent bowling in the ongoing Pentangular One-day Cup here. He grabbed 10 wickets in the last two fixtures for Sindh Knights, including six for 46 against Balochistan Warriors on Tuesday.

“To many the inclusion of Sohail is, perhaps, a surprise. But this is a proof that the selectors do consider players’ performances in domestic cricket. Sohail had a good tournament and this is just reward for all the hard work and performances given by him consistently over the past few seasons,” the chief selector said.

“The main reason we have gone for Sohail is that others who we have been considering as all-rounders have not performed well enough to win the confidence of Misbah and Waqar. Both unanimously agreed that it is worth trying out specialist bowlers rather than banking on Sohail Tanvir, Anwar Ali or Bilawal Bhatti as all-rounders.

“To be honest the selectors, captain and head coach were disappointed with the inconsistent form of Sohail Tanvir as well as of Anwar Ali and Bilawal. In our view, both Sohail Khan and Wahab Riaz are capable of making useful contributions down the order if the situation arises.”

The selectors, according to Moin, deliberated long and hard whether to rely on experienced and tested players such as Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal before opting to stick with young guns. “We did give serious consideration to Malik’s utility as an all-rounder when it was apparent that Pakistan won’t have the bowling utility of Saeed Ajmal and Hafeez as well,” Moin admitted.

“In the end, we preferred Haris Sohail in the wake of his recent performances. And being left-handed, Haris gives extra leverage to the middle-order batting.”

Sarfraz Ahmed, whose inclusion was never in doubt, has been pencilled in as the third opener in case of injury to either Shehzad or Hafeez.

“It [third opener] was another point of some concern for us. Nasir Jamshed was discussed but his recent form couldn’t justify his inclusion because he wasn’t meeting the criteria. We are gambling with just two openers since Sarfraz is always there as back-up. His style of batting is such that he could bat any where in the order according to the team’s requirement,” Moin said while admitting that Fawad Alam was ‘unfortunate’ to miss out.

“There is no doubt about Fawad’s credentials. But sadly we can only pick 15 and he didn’t fit into the combination we have selected. But he is a fighter and I’m sure he will be back because the World Cup is not the end.”

Commenting on Yasir’s induction for the mega event, Moin said that the leg-spinner was deliberately kept away from the New Zealand matches since he was earmarked as the surprise weapon.

“During the 1992 World Cup we had two leg-spinners [Mushtaq Ahmed and Iqbal Sikander] because it was felt the bouncy pitches in Australia help such bowlers. Yasir was already in our plans for the World Cup even before we selected the squad for the New Zealand one-day series,” Moin revealed.

“He [Yasir] is a good prospect as we all saw during the Test series against Australia and New Zealand late last year. He gives us wicket-taking option as well as a back-up for Afridi.”

The chief selector defended the selection of Umar Akmal despite the batsman’s lack of runs in international cricket for the past six months.

“Umar Akmal’s case is different for a number of reasons. I’m willing to concede that he hasn’t done anything noteworthy in the matches he has played over the last couple of series. But what goes in his favour is his ability to up the scoring rate during the death overs. He and Sohaib Maqsood, who has recovered from the wrist injury, are such players who can be extremely dangerous for the opposing teams on any given day,” he pointed out.

“And then Umar is being picked as the back-up keeper in case of any injury to Sarfraz. We have to see this aspect as well. Overall, I think it is the best possible combination of players we have selected for the biggest cricket tournament. We appeal to every Pakistani to support our team.”

Moin was also confident that by the time Pakistan squad leaves for New Zealand on Jan 21 from Lahore, there will be no injury concerns after reports that as many as six players had been battling injuries, including Misbah.

“I can confirm that there are no serious injury concerns at the moment. The 15 players are fully fit following the after detailed fitness tests that were conducted recently,” he said. “As each day goes by, the prognosis is quite encouraging although the [fitness] standard is not very high. But we optimistic that with culture we have developed recently to improve the level of fitness, each player would be fit.

“No one, really, can guarantee that a certain player will remain fit all the time but all of us are confident that this team has the capacity to do better in the World Cup.’

Moin also sounded confident about Misbah being fit enough to lead from the side from the front after the veteran Pakistan skipper sat out the last three one-dayers against the Black Caps last month.

“After extensive rehabilitation, Misbah’s prognosis is good. He is fit and has informed us that he has recovered. As selectors we took his word and respect his observation on his own fitness,” Moin remarked. “In case of a setback, Misbah still has got plenty of time to recover. But thing are looking healthy our point of view because he has taken up running, batting and sprinting between the wickets, something he has not done for the past four weeks.”

From the side that reached the 2011 World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, only Afridi, Misbah, Shehzad, Hafeez, Younis, Junaid, Umar Akmal and Wahab Riaz have retained their places.

After two ODIs against New Zealand in Wellington (Jan 31) and Napier (Feb 3), Pakistan will open their World Cup pool ‘B’ campaign against old foes India at the picturesque Adelaide Oval on Feb 15 before facing West Indies (Christchurch, Feb 21), Zimbabwe (Brisbane, March 1), UAE (Napier, March 4), South Africa (Auckland, March 7) and Ireland (Adelaide, March 15) in the preliminary round.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2015

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