Pakistan team for first Test today

Karachi, Feb 22: The Pakistan cricket administrators face a ticklish job on Wednesday when they sit to pick the squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka starting at the Pindi Cricket Stadium from Feb 26.

The meeting, which was originally scheduled at Lahore, has now been shifted to Rawalpindi. Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Lt-Gen Tauqir Zia will chair the meeting which will be attended by the five-member advisory council, skipper Saeed Anwar and manager Intikhab Alam.

According to informed sources, the advisory council will announce 15 players for the first Test but only Younis Khan will be the new face in the squad.

The recall of Inzamam-ul-Haq, Wajahatullah Wasti, Mohammad Akram and Waqar Younis is certain after they missed the one-day series. But the officials are perplexed about selecting Aamir Sohail and Ijaz Ahmad. Both are vying for the vacant one-down position.

Aamir Sohail was recalled for the one-day series after scoring over 750 runs in four-day first-class matches. His failures in one-dayers doesn't reflect the form he is in. Having scored runs in four-day matches, he deserves an opportunity in five-day matches as well.

As regards Ijaz Ahmad, the star batsman had a lackluster series in Australia where he completely failed in the first two Tests and then hit a century in the third Test at Perth but still ended up on the losing side.

Ijaz, overall, had a poor 1999 calendar year in which he scored 473 runs from 13 innings. His total aggregate was boosted by a 211 against Sri Lanka in the Asian Test Championship final at Dhaka. Baring that innings, Ijaz scored 261 runs from 12 innings at 21.83.

Inzamam's performance in 1999 can hardly prevent him from stepping in the team. He was the second leading scorer behind Saeed Anwar (673) with 557 runs from 13 innings at 46.41.

Saeed Anwar (captain), Wajahatullah Wasti, Aamir Sohail/Ijaz Ahmad, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Moin Khan, Abdur Razzaq, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Kabir Khan, Mohammad Akram, Shahid Nazir, Saqlain Mushtaq and Arshad Khan.