Azhar Ali was not selected as he is struggling with a knee injury

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Pakistan have left veteran batsman Azhar Ali out of their squad for the upcoming five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka.

Azhar enjoyed a lot of success during Pakistan’s successful Champions Trophy campaign in June as he scored 228 runs, which included three half-centuries, at an average of 45.60.

According to chairman of selectors Inzamam-ul-Haq, Azhar, who is currently playing in the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka, was not selected as he is nursing a knee injury.

With Azhar out, Pakistan have drafted uncapped batsman Imam-ul-Haq, who is the nephew of Inzamam, into their side.

Even though the 21-year-old has been knocking on the door to get into the national team for some time, his recent form may raise questions about why he was picked.

Imam only scored 96 runs in four National One-Day Cup matches in January this year. Fast forward to National One-Day Cup for department sides and Imam accumulated 318 runs at 35.33 for Habib Bank.

When asked about Imam’s selection, Inzamam said: “If you say he is my nephew then it was difficult. But if you look at his performances then I thought it’s ok.

“We wanted to keep the Champions Trophy team, to continue that, but unfortunately Azhar has a knee injury through which we had to bring an opener up. In my view, of all the openers who have performed recently, he was pretty good in that and deserves the pick.”

While Imam has not really excelled in the one-day format on the domestic circuit, it is a whole different story when it comes to four-day cricket as in the last edition of the Quaid-e-Azam trophy, he amassed 848 runs at an average of 49.88, which included a double century, for Habib Bank Limited.

“We have to see what the talent is, what he can do,” Inzamam said. “His performances in the QeA everyone can see. He scored two hundreds in an U-23 tournament. Then recently in Sialkot he scored a hundred, so we look at performances but also how much talent a player has.

“Mickey [Arthur] and Sarfraz [Ahmed] and others were also involved in this decision. We give all the names but there is a discussion. So it would be better to not look at this selection in that way.”

Pakistan’s ODI Squad: Ahmed Shehzad, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed (capt), Imad Wasim, Shahdab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Mohammed Amir, Ruman Raees, Junaid Khan, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq