Mohammad Yousuf retained captain for Australia by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

---

Player:	Mohammad Yousuf
Event:	Pakistan in Australia 2009/10

---

DateLine: 8th December 2009

 

Pakistan have left out Younis Khan from a 16-man squad for the three-Test series against Australia. Mohammad Yousuf will continue to lead the team in Australia. Yousuf will also lead the ODI side in Australia, with Shahid Afridi as his deputy.

 

"Younis wanted to rest but he didn't play in the domestic cricket since the one-day series against New Zealand," chief selector Iqbal Qasim told reporters. "He didn't give his availability to us and therefore we did not select him." Younis stepped away from the game after claiming he had "lost command" of the side, following months of strained relationships with a number of senior players.

 

Younis was Pakistan's leading run-getter on their last tour to Australia, the start of a period in which he established himself as one of Pakistan's most reliable batsman at one-down.

 

There are few surprises elsewhere in the squad. Sixteen of the 18 players currently taking part in a three-Test series in New Zealand will go straight to Australia after the series is over. Only allrounder Yasir Arafat and Sarfraz Ahmed, the back-up wicketkeeper, have been cut from the squad.

 

Squad : Mohammad Yousuf (capt), Salman Butt, Khurrum Manzoor, Imran Farhat, Shoaib Malik, Fawad Alam, Faisal Iqbal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Danish Kaneria, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Abdur Rauf, Umar Akmal.