Published: Oct 04, 2016, 10:27 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 04, 2016, 10:27 PM (IST)
Karachi, Oct 4 (PTI) Pakistan selectors have given senior batsman, Mohammad Hafeez to prove his fitness and form for the forthcoming Test series against the West Indies by including him as the 14th player in the PCB Patrons XI for the three-day warm-up game. The selectors’ decision to call up Hafeez came on the same day as PCB granted leave to pacer Muhammad Aamir to attend his ailing mother. The team management has granted him permission to travel home and he will miss the third ODI against the West Indies, a PCB spokesman said. Aamir, who got married a week before the series against the West Indies started, will rejoin the team depending on the condition of his mother.
The PCB spokesman said that the selectors had recalled Hafeez after he played in the first round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy first class tournament and scored two half-centuries for his Sui Northern Gas team. Hafeez had to return home early from the England tour due to a knee injury after he played in just the first ODI of the five-match series and lone T20 international.
He was also dropped for the fourth and final test against England at the Oval because of poor form but retained for the ODI series. Question marks also remain over when Hafeez will appear for the ICC bowling assessment test as the 12-month ban on him from bowling expired in July.
Earlier,Mohammad Hafeez was ruled out of the limited-over series against the West Indies owing to a calf muscle injury and is a doubtful starter for the Test matches in the United Arab Emirates. Hafeez, who had to return home from the England tour after the first one-day international due to the injury, was advised a further three weeks rest to complete his rehabilitation process. “He is undergoing a rehab program at the national cricket academy but needs a further three weeks to make a complete recovery,” Dr Muhammad Riaz who is on the Pakistan cricket board medical panel had said earlier.
