KARACHI, Oct 24: After being confined to limited-overs cricket for the best part of seven months, the leading Pakistan players are eagerly looking forward to the Pentangular Cup that would give them much-needed practice for the tough series against India in the New Year.

Sindh, skippered by flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi, will begin the defence of their title on Saturday against a strong Rao Iftikhar-led Federal Areas in the four-day fixture here at the National Stadium. The other game scheduled in the opening round features Balochistan against NWFP in Quetta.

Most of the current national stars will be seen in action during the first two rounds of what is normally considered as the ‘toughest’ first-class domestic tournament which was revived last season after a long gap.

With a three-match one-day series scheduled against the West Indies in Abu Dhabi from Nov 12, leading names would be skipping the subsequent Pentangular Cup preliminary rounds and could probably miss the final as well if a proposed offshore series of two Tests also takes place against the West Indians.

The initial matches in the Pentangular Cup offer in-and-out fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar much needed practice to get into groove for the strenuous demand of Test cricket. He has certainly a lot to prove to the national selectors who will be monitoring the paceman’s progress closely.

One name that is prominently missing from the list of squads announced for the forthcoming edition is that of Younis Khan, the star Pakistan batsman who has opted to play for South Australia in the Sheffield Shield competition Down Under.

But there are several other deserving cricketers who have been overlooked for selection at the behest of those who are in-charge of regional associations. As a result, one glaring omission is that of a youngster like Asad Shafiq, who has been callously sidelined by the officials who have instead favoured players with mediocre records.

Karachi-born Asad, 22, scored 113 for Karachi Whites on his first-class debut exactly a year against Hyderabad in a Quaid-i-Azam Trophy match in Hyderabad. He ended the season by scoring 181 when he represented NWFP versus Balochistan in the Pentangular Cup while adding 431 for the second wicket with Test reject Yasir Hameed.

Despite amassing 926 runs in 11 first-class games at almost 58 with three centuries, Asad now finds himself sitting on the sidelines for no fault of his.

The format of this year championship, which again offers Rs1 million to the winners, has been slightly changed with a five-day final added to the event in Lahore late next month.

But the PCB’s bid to revamp the format to avoid lop-sided games featuring ‘under-strength’ outfits like Balochistan and the NWFP proved pointless with the regional associations fiercely opposing the move.

Balochistan, who lost all their games last season, will however be led by Pakistan vice-captain Misbah-ul-Haq, who was Punjab’s vice-captain in the previous tournament.

Squads:

SINDH: Shahid Afridi (captain), Faisal Iqbal (vice-captain), Khalid Latif, Khurram Manzoor, Asif Zakir, Naumanullah, Faisal Athar, Fawad Alam, Rizwan Ahmed, Sarfraz Ahmed (wicket-keeper), Danish Kaneria, Sohail Khan, Anwar Ali, Tanvir Ahmed, Naeem-ur-Rehman.

PUNJAB: Shoaib Malik (captain), Mohammad Yousuf (vice-captain), Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Hafeez, Ammar Mahmood, Mansoor Amjad, Kamran Akmal (wicket-keeper), Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Khalil, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Zia, Adnan Raza, Mohammad Talha.

FEDERAL AREAS: Rao Iftikhar (captain), Sohail Tanvir (vice-captain), Raheel Majeed, Afaq Raheem, Umair Khan, Bazid Khan, Naveed Qureshi, Usman Saeed, Umar Amin, Yasir Arafat, Naeem Anjum (wicket-keeper), Immad Wasim, Shoaib Akhtar, Yasir Ali, Ashar Zaidi.

NWFP: Umar Gul (captain), Yasir Hameed (vice-captain), Riffatullah Mohmand, Aftab Khan, Adnan Raees, Shoaib Khan, Riaz Kail, Zulfiqar Jan (wicket-keeper), Yasir Shah, Aslam Qureshi, Wajid Ali, Nauman Habib, Waqar Ahmed, Junaid Khan, Shakeel-ur-Rehman.

BALOCHISTAN: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Usman Tariq, Shoaib Khan Jr, Saeed Anwar Jr, Naseem Khan, Saeed bin Nasir, Bilal Khilji, Rameez Alam, Taimur Ali, Kamran Hussain, Abdur Rauf, Mohammad Irshad, Azharullah, Nazar Hussain, Gulraiz Sadaf (wicket-keeper).

Schedule:

Oct 24-27: Sindh v Federal Areas at National Stadium, Karachi; Balochistan v NWFP at Bugti Stadium, Quetta.

Oct 31-Nov 3: Sindh v Balochistan at National Stadium; Federal Areas v NWFP at Diamond Club Ground, Islamabad.

Nov 6-9: Punjab v Sindh at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore; NWFP v Federal Areas at Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar.

Nov 12-15: Punjab v Balochistan at Gaddafi Stadium; NWFP v Sindh at Arbab Niaz Stadium.

Nov 18-21: Punjab v NWFP at Gaddafi Stadium; Federal Areas v Balochistan at Diamond Club Ground.

Nov 24-28: Final at Gaddafi Stadium.