Shahid Afridi to captain Pakistan A against Afghanistan
05 February, 2013
LAHORE: Afghanistan team will play three One-day matches against regional teams and two one-day and one Twenty20 match against Pakistan-A team led by Shahid Afridi on their ongoing tour of Pakistan to prepare for the qualifying rounds of the World Cup.
Afridi would lead not only the National A side but also of the combined Karachi/Sindh regional outfit that will play against the Afghans in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Afridi, who has been yearning to get match practice before the limited over series in South Africa, also dropped the idea of playing in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy first class tournament because of the Afghanistan series."We have named a very strong Pakistan A side for the series because Afghanistan is an outfit that can't be taken lightly at any time," chief selector Iqbal Qasim said. Besides Afridi the Pakistan 'A' ODI and T20 squads also include prominent players like Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal, Ahmed Shahzad, Wahab Riaz, Fawad Alam, Zulfiqar Babar, Umar Amin, Ali Asad, Yasir Shah and Khurrum Manzoor besides some promising youngsters.Interestingly, the selectors have ignored former captain Shoaib Malik for the series although he has been playing in the Quaid Trophy. The Afghanistan team is in Lahore training at the National Cricket Academy and had requested a series against the Pakistan A side. "For Afridi it will be a good work out and we want to give him confidence ahead of the one-day series in South Africa," another selector said. There is a feeling that the series will be important for the likes of Afridi, Kamran, Umar and other discarded players to show their form. Squads:Regional XI (Karachi Blues, Karachi Whites & Hyderabad): Khurram Manzoor, Rizwan Ahmed, Aqeel Anjum, M Waqas, Akbarur Rehman, Ali Khan Talpur, Mohtashim Ali, Atif Maqbool, Faraz Ahmad, Zahid Mahmood, M Sami, Shahid Afridi (captain), Tabish Khan, Zafar Ali (wk) and Fawad Alam. Regional XI (Faisalabad-Rawalpindi): Sohail Tanveer (captain), Awais Zia, Asif Ali, Abid Ali, Umer Waheed, Hammad Azam, Naeem Anjum (wk), Babar Azam, Zohaib Ahmad, Hassan Mahmood, Sami Aslam, Samiullah Niazi, M Nawaz and Usman Qadir. Pakistan A: Shahid Afridi (ODI and T20 captain), Umar Akmal, Ali Waqas, Umer Amin, Zulfiqar Babar and Adnan Rasool (ODIs and T20s), Shan Masood, Khurram Manzoor, Fawad Alam, Kamran Akmal, Anwar Ali, Wahab Riaz and Yasir Shah (ODIs), Ahmed Shahzad, Sharjeel Khan, M Rizwan, Asad Ali, Ahmed Jamal, Ali Khan, Shoaib Maqsood and Imran Khan. End. |
