Shehzad replaces Manzoor in Pakistan squad

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Pakistan have added opening batsman Ahmed Shehzad to their World Twenty20 squad, thus dropping Khurram Manzoor, and the PCB have conceded that Manzoor's inclusion was a mistake.

Manzoor was in the squad for the Asia Cup instead of the more experienced and storied Shehzad, and it was a gamble that 'backfired' according to selector Haroon Rasheed. Manzoor scored just 11 runs in three Asia Cup games.

Shehzad had rightly been dropped from the side, after a string of poor series as opener in recent months, but was very good in the PSL, scoring 290 runs in the short tournament.

Rasheed told Cricinfo of the selection blunder: "The inclusion of Khurram backfired and as a chief selector I take full responsibility.

"Call it an error of judgement or whatever, but we all have seen him scoring runs in domestic cricket and we gave him a chance.

"He didn't grab it, it's up to the player to justify his selection and in his case he didn't. We gambled on [Shoaib] Malik last year and it paid off.

"Now when we look around for who is going to replace Khurram, we don't really have a serious contender, but Ahmed at least has some experience under his belt.

"He did show some form in PSL too, otherwise we haven't seen any other [impressive] opening batsman."

Pakistan's top three batsmen combined for just 94 runs in four Asia Cup matches, which resulted in their early elimination and saw PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan say it was physically painful to watch them play.

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