Pakistan announces an A squad

The PCB went ahead and announced their squad for the Pakistan A side to play against India as a preparatory match.

Its interesting really, that the squad has a number of test players. While some would say that this speaks to the depth of the Pakistani cricketing squad, but this speaks more to the inability of the PCB to pick a squad over the last few years that could be consistent. Hasan Raza is being given a chance to play again, to see if he can find a place in the squad, as are Imran Farhat, Mohammad Wasim, Asim Kamal and Bazid Khan. None of the batsmen should hold their breath though, as the only position left in the squad right now, is probably at the opening slot, but that would come at the expense of Shoaib Malik.

Rao Iftikhar, Mohammad Irshad are being brought in as pacers to be given a shot. More intriguingly, Umar Gul is being brought in, not having played since India were last in Pakistan due to stress fractures in the back. After Inzamam's comments a few days ago about Umar Gul, this is truly an audition for Umar Gul. Lets see f he can come through. Even the Mumbai Mirror appears to be afraid of Umar Gul.