Younis, Gul dropped from ODI squad

Pakistan has dropped seniors Younis Khan and Umar Gul from the one-day squad for the three-match series against Australia in the UAE later this month.

Kamran Akmal, who was recalled for the Twenty20s, also made it to the one-day leg of the tour and the other notable inclusion is Junaid Khan, the left-arm fast bowler who had an impressive Test series in Sri Lanka recently. Anwar Ali, the fast bowler who has played one Twenty20 international back in 2008, is the only relatively new face in the team.

Gul, Pakistan’s strike seam bowler, was selected for the Twenty20s but ignored for the ODIs. He had a disappointing tour of Sri Lanka, taking only four wickets in five games. Younis was out of sorts throughout the series, scoring just five runs in four games.

The national selectors also ignored the unpredictable seamer Mohammad Sami, who played two one-dayers but was expensive in the fifth match in Colombo, leaking 75 runs in a thrilling encounter. Rahat Ali, the rookie left-arm seamer, was also left out after getting just one opportunity.

ODI squad:

Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal (wk), Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Aizaz Cheema, Saeed Ajmal, Imran Farhat, Shoaib Malik, Abdur Rehman, Junaid Khan, Anwar Ali