Pakistan to name squad today with Asif in run for vice-captain

KARACHI: Pakistan would announce their 15-man squad for this month’s three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka today following a meeting of the national selectors in Lahore.

Medium pacer Mohammad Asif is likely to be named the new vice-captain of the national team ahead of the series against Sri Lanka to be played from May 18-22.

A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official told this correspondent on Sunday that the national selection committee would meet this morning to finalise the Pakistani team. The committee’s chairman Salahuddin Ahmed alias Sallu would later present the list of players to PCB chief Nasim Ashraf for his approval.

The team would be announced by the chief selector later in the evening following the approval expected during the PCB’s ad-hoc committee meeting in Lahore today.

Sources said that the selectors are still undecided on the final combination of the squad and would finalise it following consultations with the new Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik. It would be the young all-rounder’s first outing as the national team skipper after taking over from veteran batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq, who resigned following Pakistan’s horrendous World Cup campaign in the Caribbean.

It is also the first assignment for the selection committee that was appointed by the Board in the aftermath of the World Cup debacle.

The new selectors are under pressure to induct some new faces in the national team, a move that would be a signal that Pakistan are making a fresh start.

Promising Karachi player Fawad Alam is one of the young players being seriously considered by the selectors for the series in Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile, Asif’s expected appointment as Malik’s deputy today would be a controversial one as the bowler is still under a doping scan following a positive test for banned anabolic steroid nandrolone last September. Asif and fellow pacer Shoaib Akhtar, who also failed a similar dope test, were banned for two years by a PCB inquiry committee but were later cleared of doping offences by an appeals tribunal.

The verdict of the appeals tribunal was later challenged by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that is based in Switzerland.