04 March,2009 05:24 PM IST | | AFP
Pakistan Wednesday omitted yet-to-be fully fit Shoaib Akhtar from a 16-man squad for this month's tour of Bangladesh, where they play two Twenty20 and five one-day internationals.
The team departs on March 7 and play the first of two Twenty20 matches on March 10 in Dhaka. The other Twenty20 match and the first three one-day matches are also scheduled for Dhaka.
The last two one-day matches will be played in Chittagong.
All-rounder Shahid Afridi, and pacemen Sohail Tanveer and Rao Iftikhar were recalled after being dropped for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka earlier this month.
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Chief selector Abdul Qadir said Akhtar had yet to prove his fitness.
"We asked Akhtar to play in a first-class match but he didn't play, so we did not consider him as he is still to attain full fitness," said Qadir.
Akhtar missed the Sri Lankan series due to knee injury.
The 33-year-old paceman was also dropped from the squad after he managed just one wicket in the two limited over internationals against Sri Lanka last month.
Akhtar had said that he was hoping to use the Bangladesh tour to stage a comeback.
The squad has three uncapped players in opener Ahmed Shahzad, leg-spinner Yasir Shah and paceman Mohammad Aamir.
"We have included some youngsters with an eye on the future," said Qadir, who thinks Shah will be a future replacement for Danish Kaneria in the spin department.
Squad: Younus Khan (capt), Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi, Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shahzad, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Fawad Alam, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanver, Mohammad Aamir, Yasir Arafat, Yasir Shah, Rao Iftikhar, Sarfraz Ahmed.
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