Pakistan recall Ajmal for all three formats

LAHORE: Pakistan recalled star spinner Saeed Ajmal in all three formats as selectors announced the squads for the national side’s Bangladesh tour Friday, but there was no place on the plane for under-performing batsman Umar Akmal.
Ajmal has undergone remedial work to fix his bowling action after it was ruled illegal in September and he was suspended, forcing him out of last month’s World Cup.
The 37-year-old had been key to Pakistan’s success in Tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 matches before his action was reported as suspect during Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka in August last year.
Pakistan’s new selection committee, headed by former batsman Haroon Rasheed, warned the squads that discipline would be closely watched.
“We have told the players that Pakistan comes first,” said Rasheed.
“There will be no compromise on discipline and that’s why we have dropped Umar from all formats and Ahmed Shehzad from two.”
Head coach Waqar Younis had complained about Shehzad and Umar’s lack of discipline during Pakistan’s World Cup campaign, which ended in a quarter-final defeat to hosts and eventual champions Australia.
Umar managed just 164 runs in seven matches while Shehzad scored 222 in as many games.
Spinning allrounder Mohammad Hafeez also returns to all three formats after missing the World Cup with a calf injury.
He too has suffered problems with his action, which was ruled illegal in December, and faces a re-test on April 9 to try to get clearance to play.
The one-day squad will be captained by Azhar Ali, replacing the now retired Misbah-ul-Haq.
Misbah continues to lead the Test side while Shahid Afridi, who also retired from one-day cricket after the World Cup, will captain the Twenty20 side.
The newly-appointed selection committee made a whole host of changes for the Bangladesh tour. They named two new faces for the ODIs – wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan and left-handed batsman Sami Aslam, the Under-19 captain from the 2014 World Cup. Rizwan had been in contention for the ODI squad for some time but this is the first time he has been picked.
They left out an out-of-form Nasir Jamshed after he played three matches in the World Cup, making scores of 4, 1 and 0. He last scored an ODI fifty in July 2013. The selectors went for Asad Shafiq instead, who last played in the ODIs against New Zealand in the UAE in December. Shafiq has scored three fifties and a hundred this year in domestic one-dayers in Pakistan.
From the Test squad that played against New Zealand in the UAE last year, Ehsan Adil, Imran Khan, Mohammad Talha, Shan Masood and Taufeeq Umar were left out, making way for uncapped batsmen Sami Aslam and Babar Azam.
The T20 squad from the same tour left out Anwar Ali, Awais Zia, Raza Hasan to bring in Sohaib Maqsood, Rizwan and uncapped batsman Mukhtar Ahmed, who has played only five domestic T20s. The 22-year-old batsman has scored two fifties and a hundred this year in one-day matches for State Bank of Pakistan, who won the President’s Gold Cup in February. He has a hundred in domestic T20s and a strike rate of 161.15.
Fast bowler Mohammad Irfan, who was injured during the World Cup, was not part of any of the squads.
Pakistan will play two Tests, three One-day Internationals and a Twenty20 on the Bangladesh tour, with the first one-dayer starting on April 17.
Pakistan squads
Test: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Sami Aslam, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Haris Sohail, Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, Sarfraz Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Sohail Khan, Rahat Ali.
One-day International: Azhar Ali (captain), Sami Aslam, Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan, Haris Sohail, Sohaib Maqsood, Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Shah, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Ehsan Adil, Sohail Khan.
Twenty20: Shahid Afridi (captain), Ahmed Shehzad, Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Hafeez, Mukhtar Ahmed, Sohaib Maqsood, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Rizwan, Saeed Ajmal, Saad Nasim, Sohail Tanveer, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Khan, Umar Gul, Junaid Khan.