Pace bowler Sohail Tanvir included in Pakistan squad for New Zealand tour

LAHORE - Pakistan cricket selectors have included injury-blighted paceman Sohail Tanvir in the national squad that is currently on the tour of New Zealand.

Just two weeks after he was ruled out of the New Zealand tour owing to a knee problem, Tanvir has been given the all clear following another fitness test.

“The medical panel has revaluated his fitness and cleared him fit for the tour,” the Daily Times quoted a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) spokesman, as saying.

“The doctor (who operated knee surgery on Tanvir last year) has also said he is now ready to take the load of international cricket,” the spokesman added.

Shortly after he was initially dropped from the national squad, Tanvir took nine wickets including 6-32 in the second innings of a Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match, and said that he had informed the board that he was now feeling no discomfort while bowling or fielding.

“The doctors have only advised me not to initially field inside the circle to avoid sharp bending of the knees,” said the 26-year-old left-armer.

Tanvir, who bowls an awkward wrong-foot action to surprise batsmen, burst onto the international scene in 2007, replacing mercurial paceman Shoaib Akhtar in Pakistan’s World Twenty20 squad.

The following year - only his second year at an international level - Tanvir bowled the Rajasthan Royals to the title in the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL), finishing as the best bowler in the lucrative Twenty20 league.

Tanvir, however, suffered from back and knee problems, which stalled his international career.

On the New Zealand tour, the Pakistan team are already without the services of their leading pace bowlers Mohammad Aamir and Mohammad Asif, who remained suspended by the ICC on the spot-fixing allegations.

Pakistan selectors, headed by Mohsin Hasan Khan, are due to announce the squad for six One-day Internationals later this week. (ANI)