The national selection committee of Pakistan has shortlisted five reserves to meet any eventuality of replacing any cricketer in the original World Cup squad.
KARACHI: The national selection committee of Pakistan has shortlisted five reserves to meet any eventuality of replacing any cricketer in the original World Cup squad.
The selection committee has also decided not to take chances on unfit pacer Shabbir Ahmed, who returned to international action last month after serving a 12-month ban for having an illegal bowling action and was sent back from South Africa with a groin strain after bowling just two overs.
"Shabbir is not among the reserves because he is still not match fit. We have opted for Mohammad Sami and Shahid Nazir as the reserve pacers," a selector said.
The other players on the reserves list are wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider, opener Salman Butt (who has not played since last year) and all-rounder Azhar Mahmood.
A Pakistan Cricket Board official said the International Cricket Council had made it clear that participating nations needed to announce reserves for the World Cup.
"We will have to pick any replacement from these five if any of the player(s) in the main squad is ruled out of the tournament," the selector said.
The Pakistan team returns from South Africa early Friday morning with the PCB having scheduled dope test for all of them.
"Even Shoaib Akhtar who will return from London tomorrow will have dope tests the same day. The players who reside in Karachi will be tested there," the official said.
The dope tests are being held as a screening process to ensure Pakistan does not face a similar scandal it faced last November when Akhtar and Mohammad Asif tested positive for nandrolone and were banned for two and one years. Their bans were later overturned by an appeals committee.
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