Fawad out, Sohail Khan big surprise in Pak WC squad
Pakistan announced their 15-man World Cup squad on Wednesday, leaving out Fawad Alam and Umar Gul and including 30-year old pace bowler Sohail Khan, who last played international cricket in 2011 against Zimbabwe, after bagging ten wickets in two of his most recent List A games, and was the highest wicket-taker in this season's Quaid-e-Azam Gold League - 64 at an average of 22, reports Dawn.
Apart from Sohail, the other World Cup inclusions not part of the squad for the series against New Zealand in December 2014 - Pakistan's previous ODI assignment - are batsman Shoaib Maqsood, and fast bowlers Junaid Khan and Ehsan Adil. All three missed that series because of injuries but have now recovered.
Veteran batsman Younis Khan, who hit a purple patch in Test cricket but was mediocre in the recent ODIs against New Zealand, was also included in the squad.
Left-hand middle-order batsman Fawad Alam, who has been Pakistan's most reliable ODI batsman of late, will feel unlucky to have missed out, the selectors instead preferring another player in similar mould, Haris Sohail.
The players who were part of the New Zealand series but excluded from the World Cup squad are: Anwar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Nasir Jamshed, Sohail Tanvir and Zulfiqar Babar. Umar Gul and Bilawal Bhatti had been withdrawn from the New Zealand series because of injury and were also not included in the World Cup squad.
Pakistan Squad:
Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Sarfaraz ahmed, Younis Khan, Harris Sohail, Misbah ul Haq, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Maqsood, Shahid Afridi, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Ehsan Adil, Sohail Khan, Wahab Riaz
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