Pakistan fast-bowler Shoaib Akhtar was on Thursday left out of the World team 12 for the Super Test against Australia starting at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.
World skipper Graeme Smith said Shoaib, who was a major disappointment in last week’s 3-0 loss to Australia in the one-day Super Series in Melbourne, has been omitted from the 12.
Smith will finalise his starting team before the start of play in the one-off, six-day Test.
Shoaib was left out after an inglorious wicket-less haul off 17 games for 110 runs in two one-dayers last week.
”Shoaib is missing out of the 12, so we’re pretty confident in the 11 we’re going to pick and where we’re going to go and we want to pick the best 11 we feel can win the game,” Smith said on Thursday.
The 30-year-old paceman was left out of the Pakistani national team on a tour of West Indies last May over fitness concerns.
”He’s been left out of the squad and it’s got nothing to do with his weight, or anything like that; we’ve just left him out,” Smith said. ”We felt that he wouldn’t fit into the 11 or 12 that we wanted to pick, so that’s why we’ve left him out.”
The Australian team will be named on match morning, with captain Ricky Ponting to decide whether to play three seamers or two leg-spinners, Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill.
Ponting, who has had only one look at the Sydney Cricket Ground pitch this week, said he wanted to have a more detailed inspection of the Test pitch on Thursday before deciding with selectors about the possible make-up of his team.
Showers are forecast throughout all six scheduled days of the one-off Test. — Sapa-AFP