Misbah-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi retained captaincy for Test and Twenty20 matches respectively for the upcoming tour of New Zealand as the Pakistan Cricket Board has announced on Tuesday the national cricket squad for the series starting from December 26, 2010.
Pakistan plays three Twenty20 matches, two Tests and six One-day internationals. A separate squad for the one-day matches will be announced later. Pakistan will begin the tour with a warm-up game against Auckland on December 23. Wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, former captain Shoaib Malik, leg spinner Danish Kaneria, pacer Mohammad Sami and batsmen Mohammad Yousuf and Imran Farhat have been ignored. Yousaf was ruled out of the Test series against South Africa due to a recurrence of a groin injury.
On the other hand, Ahmed Shehzad managed his return to the limited overs game. Kamran had been left out of South Africa series, prior to which he had undergone an appendicitis operation, and Zulqarnain Haider, who later deserted the team, leaving for London midway through the UAE tour, was drafted in. Kamran, upon his recovery, had expressed his willingness to play as a specialist batsman. In his absence from the national team, he had impressed with a double-century for National Bank of Pakistan in the domestic Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, and so had Malik, who scored a century in each innings for Pakistan International Airlines.
Danish Kaneria had been prevented by the PCB from joining the Test squad for the South Africa series - despite being named in the original squad - though no reason was given. Off spinner Saeed Ajmal and left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman, who also showed ability with the bat, will make up the spin attack while Umar Gul, Tanvir Ahmed, Sohail Tanvir and Wahab Riaz - subject to fitness after suffering a muscle strain against South Africa - will form the pace department in Tests. Shoaib Akhtar leads the attack in the Twenty-20 format.
Twenty20 squad: Shahid Afridi (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shahzad, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal, Fawad Alam, Adnan Akmal (wk), Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar, Tanvir Ahmed, Sohail Tanvir, Wahab Riaz (subject to fitness).
Test squad: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umar, Younis Khan, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Adnan Akmal (wk), Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Umar Gul, Tanvir Ahmed, Sohail Tanvir, Wahab Riaz (subject to fitness).