Akhtar targets Sri Lanka one-day return

Injury-prone paceman Shoaib Akhtar said Wednesday he wants to return to international cricket in the one-day series against Sri Lanka after missing out on Pakistan’s World Twenty20 triumph.

The 33-year-old was withdrawn a week before the start of the World Twenty20 last month - which Pakistan won by beating Sri Lanka - after a doctor said the player was suffering from genital viral warts.

“It was a heartbreak missing out on Pakistan’s World T20 success, but that’s in the past now and I want to play the one-day series against Sri Lanka,” Akhtar told AFP.

“I have attained full fitness and have been gaining rhythm in bowling. I hope to stage a comeback in the one-day series against Sri Lanka, if I am selected,” he added.

Pakistan lost the first of three Tests against Sri Lanka on Tuesday. The Test series will be followed by five one-dayers and one Twenty20 match. The first limited over international will be held at the holiday resort of Dambulla on July 30.

Akhtar managed to play just four Twenty20 matches last year, and the controversial fast bowler’s 12-year career has been plagued by injuries and disciplinary problems.

After serving a ban for publicly criticising the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the board allowed Akhtar to play at the international level and included him in the three-match one-day series against the West Indies last November.

But he was again sidelined with a hamstring injury and only returned for two one-day internationals against Sri Lanka earlier this year, before being dropped because of poor performance.

He played in four of the five one-day internationals against Australia in April-May, where he again under-performed. Pakistan’s interim chief selector Wasim Bari said the team for the one-day series against Sri Lanka will be announced next week.

KARACHI, AFP