Malik struggling to find a place in Pakistan team

KARACHI - Six months after being dumped as Pakistan captain, senior all-rounder Shoaib Malik is struggling to keep his place in Pakistans Test line-up.

According to sources, Pakistan team management is finding it increasingly difficult to offer Malik a place in the playing line-up as a genuine all-rounder and might play him as an opener in the first Test against Sri Lanka starting in Galle from July 4.

The return of senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf in the middle-order has also caused more problems for Malik. Yousuf was recalled in the Test squad after he broke ties with the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) earlier this summer.

Interestingly, it was after Maliks ascent as Pakistan captain after the 2007 World Cup that Yousuf was forced to leave national duty.

Yousuf defected to the ICL and later blamed Malik for treating senior players shabbily. Yousuf had claimed that it was because of Maliks behaviour that he was forced to switch allegiance to the ICL.

Sources said that the Pakistan team management will offer Malik to open the innings with Salman Butt. Malik has opened the innings in the past and has a good track record playing up the order in Sri Lanka.

On the 2006 tour of Sri Lanka, Malik played a match-saving knock of 148 - his career-best as Pakistan won the Test series.

Pakistan seems all set to give Test caps to rookie pacer Mohammad Aamer and off-spinner Saeed Ajmal. The duo performed well in the ICC World Twenty20 in England where Pakistan beat Sri Lanka in the final.