Karachi, Mar. 28: Pakistan pacers Shoaib Akhtar and Umar Gul, who are expecting a call for national duty ahead of the one-day series against Australia, will have to go through an extensive fitness test to prove their match-fitness.

According to sources, the Pakistan team management is planning to organize a fitness test before the squad for the UAE series is announced.

The selectors and the team management have decided to include only those players in the team who prove their

Lahore, Mar. 27 : Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar may have announced that he is fully fit to be a part of the national squad, but coach Intikhab Alam has made it clear that Akhtar still needs to prove his fitness ahead of the one-day series against Australia in the UAE.

Karachi, Mar. 26 : Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar believes that the Australian team does not pose as great a threat now as it did three to four years ago.

Akhtar said it was much easier to beat the Aussies now, as they did not have many star players in the squad.

He said that if the Pakistani players put up a good show in the forthcoming one day series in UAE, they can beat the world champions.

Islamabad, Mar 24 : Pakistan's chief selector Abdul Qadir has said that pacer Shoaib Akhtar can return to Pakistan duty if he proves his fitness over the next few days.

He said the selectors have been keeping an eye on Akhtar's performance to decide whether he can be brought back into the team for the one-dayers against Australia.

Qadir pointed out that Shoaib recently gave a good showing in a one-day game, which he said was a good sign.

Lahore, Mar 24: Shoaib Akhtar is hopeful the Indian Premier League (IPL)’s impending move to South Africa or England could pave the way for Pakistani players to return to the lucrative Twenty20 tournament.

In an interview to a cricket website, Shoaib said he and his Pakistani counterparts were holding out hope of an eleventh-hour call-up to the IPL, now that the tournament seems destined to be shifted out of India.

Islamabad, Mar. 11 : Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar is doing everything to force his way back into the team, including showering praise on incumbent captain Younis Khan.

Commending the leadership qualities of Khan, Akhtar said that under his captaincy, Pakistan may win the 2011 World Cup. His positive approach would surely help the PCB form a competent squad before World Cup 2011. The News quoted Ahktar, as saying.

He expressed his lament at being dropped from the national squad.