Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) selection committee has called up former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq for fitness trials before the home Test series against South Africa.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) selection committee has called up former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq for fitness trials before the home Test series against South Africa.
Inzamam's fitness will be ascertained at a week-long fitness camp ahead of the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in September.
"We have decided to invite a few players including Inzamam-ul-Haq to check their fitness for the Test series against South Africa," chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed told The News.
Considering the rethinking on the part the PCB, the chances of Inzamam making a comeback to the Test team now looks good.
Inzamam was not given a central contract by the PCB and the reason given for his omission was his retirement from ODIs after the 2007 World Cup. The board was keen to award contracts only to those who could play both forms of the game.
"It all depends on his fitness," Salahuddin said. "If Inzamam proves his fitness, he could be selected for the series against South Africa.
"We have decided to arrange a one-week training camp ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup as it would be too difficult to have an idea of players' fitness at the eleventh hour of the start of the series."
Salahuddin said some of the players who have a history of fitness problems would be given the opportunity to prove themselves in the camp.
Meanwhile, the selectors have called up the entire Twenty20 squad - barring four playing cricket in England - for the third phase of the national camp which gets under way at the National Stadium in Karachi on Friday.
Yasir Arafat, Younis Khan, Danish Kaneria and Zulqarnain Haider have been exempted from the 10-day camp, while the remaining 26 probables have been asked to report at Karachi Thursday.
Salahuddin added that the probables would mostly be involved in trial matches.
"They could play just four matches in Lahore. However, in Karachi these probables would be involved in trial matches. At least eight to ten Twenty20 matches will be played during the camp in Karachi."
The first phase of the training camp was held in Abbottabad followed by the second phase that concluded in Lahore on Monday.
Probables for the third phase: Shoaib Malik (captain), Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Yousuf, Yasir Hameed, Fawad Alam, Salman Butt, Imran Nazir, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Imran Farhat, Khurram Manzoor, Khalid Latif, Mohammd Hafeez Misbah-ul-Haq, Naved Latif, Faisal Iqbal, Shahid Yousuf, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Irshad, Najaf Shah and Abdur Rehman.
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