Pakistan selectors have left out ace pacemen Shoaib Akhtar and Umar Gul, and all-rounder Shahid Afridi from the initial squad for the one-day series against Zimbabwe, selectors said Sunday.
Akhtar and Gul suffered fitness problems on Pakistan's tour of India last month and chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed said the fast bowlers will have to prove they are back to 100 percent before selection.
"Akhtar and Gul will have to prove their fitness and that's why we did not consider them for selection in this probable list of 21," Ahmed said. The initial list of 21 will be whittled down to a smaller squad, from which the team will be chosen.
Pakistan Cricket Board said the fast bowlers will have to feature in domestic matches to get their places back.
Gul missed the three-match Test series against India due to a back problem, while Akhtar, though featuring in all three Tests, suffered a viral infection and back complaint.
Afridi, who was unimpressive in the one-day series against India and was dropped from the Test team, was also not considered for the five-match Zimbabwe series, which starts on January 21.
PAKISTAN INITIAL SQUAD: Shoaib Malik (captain), Salman Butt, Shadab Kabir, Khurram Manzoor, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Naveed Latif, Kamran Akmal, Salman Ahmed, Rao Iftikhar, Sohail Tanvir, Yasir Arafat, Mansoor Amjad, Abdur Rauf, Rauf Akbar, Junaid Zia, Wahab Riaz, Anwar Ali, Tahir Khan, Saeed Ajmal.
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