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| New T20 captain Hafeez looks to lead his team to a victorious tour of Sri Lanka |
According to Pakistani all rounder and new T20 captain Hafeez, the Pakistan cricket team are short of match practice and regular matches on the international scene. With no players allowed to play in the IPL and no team wanting to travel to the country for a tour, the players are losing the chance to play regularly and earn regularly like the other top players in the world. So they should relish the chance in the upcoming series when they travel to Sri Lanka for a month long tour covering all three of the cricketing formats. The selectors have made changes to the squads and especially the T20 one with the T20 World Cup coming up in September in Sri Lanka. It looks like the board have one eye on that tournament and are looking to make some changes to get settled for the tournament. The one big change being the dropping of Misbah from the squad and electing Hafeez as captain. A good decision to get a solid consistent player of the last few years who will lead from the front with both bat and could with the ball. Other surprise selections for the T20 squad were exciting new comers Ahmed Shehzad and Hammad Azam who like look good attacking batters at the top and bottom of an innings. An old face in Mohammed Sami made a comeback in all three squads and Faisal Iqbal has been given another chance in in the Test squad. Misbah retains captaincy for Test and ODI with a lot of familiar faces gracing the squads. Several new faces have been given a chance to impress across the three squads. Harris Sohail and Shakeel Ansar for the T20, Rahat Ali for the ODI and Afaq Rahim for the Tests. Afaq Rahim is an exciting young prospect from Mirpur who has had a lot of exposure coming from Azad Kashmir and raising through the ranks there and to go on and play for the National team. A lot will be riding on his shoulders and the pressures of Azad Kashmir will have high hopes for him. Let's hope he can deliver and give the Pakistani selectors more reasons to use the talent hidden in the other areas of Kashmir. The full squads list is below:
Squad (Twenty20): Mohammad Hafeez (c), Khalid Latif, Ahmed Shahzad, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Shakeel Ansar, Shahid Afridi, Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanveer, Saeed Ajmal, Raza Hasan, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Sami, Hammad Azam, Nasir Jamshed.
One-day: Misbah-ul Haq (c), Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed, Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, Rahat Ali, Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Rehman, Mohammad Sami, Asad Shafiq, Aizaz Cheema, Azhar Ali, Imran Farhat
Test: Misbah-ul Haq (c), Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umar, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Adnan Akmal, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Rehman, Mohammad Sami, Faisal Iqbal, Junaid Khan, Afaq Rahim, Mohammad Ayub, Aizaz Cheema.
The Sri Lanka squad will be without some of the main big name players as they have commitments in the IPL but will still prove a tough test for the Pakistani team. Flick Spinner Ajantha Mendis gets a call back into the squad after itting out for a few series. As one of the most innovative and exciting spin bowlers in world cricket the Pakistani team will hope they can continue to work him out and pick him to keep his wicket tally down to a minimum. The full squad for Sri Lanka is below:
Chandimal, Chamara Kapugedera, Prasanna Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Rangana Herath, Thisara Perera, Chanaka Welegedera, Farveez Maharoof,Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekara, Suranga Lakmal, Dhammika Prasad, Shaminda Eranga, Dilhara Fernando, Nuwan Pradeep, Isuru Udana, Suraj Randiv, Jeevan Mendis, Sachitra Senanayake, Ajantha Mendis, Dilruwan Perera, Kaushal Lokuarachchi.
The Schedule for the whole series is listed below:
| Jun-2012 | |
Fri 01  13:30 GMT, 19:00 local | 1st T20I - Sri Lanka v Pakistan Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, Hambantota |
| Sun 03 13:30 GMT, 19:00 local | 2nd T20I - Sri Lanka v Pakistan Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, Hambantota |
| Thu 07 09:00 GMT, 14:30 local | 1st ODI - Sri Lanka v Pakistan Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy |
| Sat 09 09:00 GMT, 14:30 local | 2nd ODI - Sri Lanka v Pakistan Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy |
| Wed 13 09:00 GMT, 14:30 local | 3rd ODI - Sri Lanka v Pakistan R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo |
| Sat 16 09:00 GMT, 14:30 local | 4th ODI - Sri Lanka v Pakistan R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo |
| Mon 18 09:00 GMT, 14:30 local | 5th ODI - Sri Lanka v Pakistan R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo |
| Fri 22 - Tue 26 05:00 GMT, 10:30 local | 1st Test - Sri Lanka v Pakistan Galle International Stadium, Galle |
| Sat 30 - Wed 04 05:00 GMT, 10:30 local | 2nd Test - Sri Lanka v Pakistan Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo |
| Jul-2012 | |
| Sun 08 - Thu 12 05:00 GMT, 10:30 local | 3rd Test - Sri Lanka v Pakistan Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy |
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