Islamabad, Nov 21: Hard-hitting opener Shahid Afridi today was named captain of the Pakistan A team which will compete in a triangular tournament in India next month. Afridi played his last of 176 one-day internationals against India at centurion, South Africa in this year's world cup before he was sidelined from the national team due to poor form.
Besides Pakistan, A teams from India and Sri Lanka would take part in the tournament, which will be organised at Kolkata from December 13-21.
Afridi, the 23-year-old opener, has a strike rate of over 100 in one-day internationals, but averages just 23.70 for his 3,887 runs in 176 international games.
The squad also includes international players, openers Mohammad Hafeez, Salman Butt and Imran Nazir. Faisal Iqbal, nephew of Pakistan national team coach Javed Miandad, and paceman Umar Gul, who played against Bangladesh in the Test series at home in August-September, would make Pakistan strong favourites for the tri series in India.
Squad: Shahid Afridi (captain), Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Bin Nasir, Naved Latif, Amin-ur-Rehman (wicketkeeper), Umar Gul, Mohammad Khalil, Mohammad Irshad, Mansoor Amjad, Faisal Iqbal, Bilal Asad, Imran Nazir and Abdul Rauf. Azhar Zaidi (manager), Naveed Anjum (coach).
Bureau Report