Rahat Ali to replace Junaid Khan for World Cup squad

LAHORE: Pakistan left-arm fast-medium bowler Rahat Ali is to replace injured Junaid Khan for the World Cup 2015 squad, sources said on Thursday.

Rahat Ali made his debut with the one-day squad for the tour of Sri Lanka in 2012.

Highly-placed sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board told Geo News that the team management in New Zealand had asked for Sohail Tanveer to be sent as a replacement for injured Junaid.

However, PCB chairman Shahryar Khan prefered to send Rahat over Tanveer, they added.

Left-arm seamer Junaid Khan was earlier unable to clear a fitness test which put him out of contention for the World Cup starting this month in Australia and New Zealand.

Junaid expressed his disappointment on Twitter on not being part of the World Cup squad, but said his well wishes were with the Pakistan team.

The Peshawar speedster did quite well in the recently concluded national ODI tournament but a recurrence of an earlier injury forced him to be left out of the national team.