Pakistan leaving for Srilanka

Cricket: Pakistan to leave for Sri lanka

Lahore: Pakistan cricket team will leave for Sri Lanka on Monday (today) to play T20, ODI and test series.

Green Shirts will play two Twenty20 Internationals against the Lankan"s at Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium in Sooriyawewa before figuring in a five-match One Day International series.

The last leg of their tour will comprise three Tests against Sri Lanka to be played at Galle International Stadium, SSC Grounds and Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy from June 22. However, the national selectors have delayed naming the final squad for the Test series and would only do so after the ODI series.

Pakistan made a clean sweep, beating Sri Lanka in Tests (1-0), ODIs (4-1) and T20 match when the two teams last met in UAE last year. Pakistan also beat Sri Lanka in their Asia Cup qualifying round meeting in Dhaka last March. However, Sri Lanka won both the Test (2-0) and ODI (3-2) series when Pakistan last toured Sri Lank.

PAKISTANI SQUAD FOR SRI LANKA

The Pakistan selection committee had a bagful of surprises while announcing separate Test, ODI and T20 squads for the coming tour to Sri Lanka.

After the PCB chairman, Zaka Ashraf had announced that Mohammad Hafez would be the new T20 captain and vice-captain to Misbah-ul-Haq in Tests and ODIs, the selectors dropped Misbah from the T20 squad.

Announcing a number of new faces and recalling some stalwarts in all three teams, the selectors clearly signaled a new line of thinking for Pakistan cricket.

Surprisingly fast bowler, Mohammad Sami who has been sidelined from national team since 2010 was recalled for all three formats of the game while another surprise was the recall of discarded batsman, Faisal Iqbal to the test side.

Interestingly allrounder, Shoaib Malik who was being seen as a top candidate to replace Misbah as the T20 captain has not been picked in either format.

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.

Muhammad Hafeez Appointed T20 Captain 10 May 2012(Pressconfrence)

MOHAMMAD HAFEEZ DETERMINED