Waqar left out of provisional squad

Pakistan today announced a 22-man provisional squad for the forthcoming series against India, with Waqar Younis and Azhar Mahmood the most notable omissions.

"We have selected the probables after carefully studying the current form and fitness of the players," Wasim Bari, the chairman of selectors, said. "But that does not mean that the teams for the international matches against India will be selected from this list only. The selectors will continue to monitor the performance of the players in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy first-class competition, and any player putting up a good performance would certainly be considered for selection."

He added that the squad had been finalised after consultations with Inzamam-ul-Haq, the captain, and Javed Miandad, the coach, and that only 14 players will be selected for each match. He said, "We don't want to carry extra players, instead we would like them to participate in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and strengthen their claims for selection."

The squad for the first Test will be announced on March 8.

Squad Imran Farhat, Taufeeq Umar, Yasir Hameed, Yousuf Youhana, Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Asim Kamal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Bazid Khan, Faisal Iqbal, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Saqlain Mushtaq, Danish Kaneria, Moin Khan (wk), Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Shabbir Ahmed, Umar Gul, Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan, Rao Iftikhar, Shadab Kabir.