Pakistan’s Champion Trophy’s squad announced - Younis Khan dropped

Pakistan cricket team’s 30 man initial squad for the forthcoming ICC Champion’s Trophy has been announced and the star middle order batsman Younis Khan, who has been out of form for quite a while now, has been dropped from the squad.
The selection committee which announced the preliminary squad was headed by former Test cricketer Iqbal Qasim, who along with his team were on the task of observing and handpicking upcoming cricketers from the performances depicted in the Super-Eight Twenty20 in Lahore. Younis’s selection was already hanging in balance since his recent performances were floppy enough to make him stand in the danger area. And now the doubts have been confirmed as he failed to get selected for the Champion’s Trophy League. Younis has been in poor form not just in the test series but also in the 50-over format which was confirmed by his failure to mark his presence in the recent series against South Africa.
The 35-year-old Younis managed to score just a total of 116 runs in the series against South Africa earlier this month which Pakistan lost shamefully. The track record of Younis shows that the middle-order batsman has not been in form for years now as he has not managed to score a century since November 2008. Since his debut 13 years ago, he has so far scored 7014 runs in 253 one-day internationals.
Chief selector Iqbal Qasim said the Pakistani squad was a “mix of youth and experience”.
“Younis’s name was not considered after he did not show the form in the last few matches,” he told AFP
The former captain, who already retired from the Twenty20 version, was considering retiring from ODIs as well, as reported by media. However, a selector said that Younus must not lose heart. “To retire or not will be his own decision. If Younus feels he is still good enough, he can make a comeback by showing his form in domestic competitions.”
The decision to drop Younis Khan, he said, was made after reaching consensus with the team management including coach Dav Whatmore and captain Misbahul Haq.
The other batsman who failed to make his impression on the selectors was the all-rounder Abdul Razzaq who has not played a one-day international since November 2011.
A selector commented that “we are unaware of Razzaq’s fitness since he has not taken part in domestic tournaments.”
While cutting out Younis and overlooking Razzaq, however, all the other senior players including Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik and Umar Gul were retained in the squad.
Pakistan is in group B of the ICC Champion’s Trophy event which is to be held in England from June 3rd to June 23rd, 2013. Group B also includes arch-rival India, along with the West Indies and South Africa. Pakistan is to play their first match against West Indies on June 7 after which it will play South Africa on June 10 and India on June 15.
In Group A are Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England.
Pakistan’s probables for the squad include Azhar Ali, Asad Ali, Anwar Ali, Imran Farhat, Ahmed Shehzad Nasir Jamshed, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah ul Haq, Harris Sohail, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Umar Amin, Sohail Tanvir, Hammad Azam, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Umar Gul, Rahat Ali, Ehsan Adil, Imran Khan, Aizaz Cheema, Mohammad Rizwan, Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Rehman, Yasir Arafat and Zulfiqar Babar.