{"id":9697,"date":"2009-04-09T17:04:10","date_gmt":"2009-04-09T17:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2009\/04\/09\/shoaib-akhtar-passes-fitness-test-to-make-australia-series\/"},"modified":"2009-04-09T17:04:10","modified_gmt":"2009-04-09T17:04:10","slug":"shoaib-akhtar-passes-fitness-test-to-make-australia-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2009\/04\/09\/shoaib-akhtar-passes-fitness-test-to-make-australia-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Shoaib Akhtar passes fitness test to make Australia series"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3>\u2018Amazing Series Ahead\u2019 says Former Pakistan Test Star<\/h3>\n<div><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"277\" hspace=\"10\" width=\"180\" align=\"right\" vspace=\"3\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/Image\/ArticleImages\/ShoaibAkhtar_180x232.jpg\"\/>PAKISTAN\u2019S Shoaib Akhtar, has passed a fitness test and has been named in the squad which will face Australia in a one-day international series and a one-off Twenty20 match in the UAE later this month.<\/strong><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nThe selectors have named the 33-year-old following fitness tests in Lahore.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nHe joins Younus Khan, Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul in the 15 man squad.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nThe Pakistan team will arrive in Dubai next week ahead of the five one-day internationals and one Twenty:20 match.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u201cShoaib has been struggling with a knee injury so this is a huge boost for Pakistan as he remains one of the best players in the world,\u201d said the former Pakistan opening batsman, Mudassar Nazar, who is now Head Coach at the ICC Global Cricket Academy at Dubai Sports City.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\u201cJoining the likes of Shahid Afridi and Salman Butt, who are two of the most destructive players in the game, gives Pakistan a great chance in the matches against Australia.\u201d<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u201cThe selectors have been able to name a powerful, well-balanced squad and it is going to prove a brilliant first series here in Dubai,\u201d added Nazar.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nThe series kicks off on 22 April at the newly built 25,000 capacity Dubai Sports City Cricket Stadium. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Amazing Series Ahead\u2019 says Former Pakistan Test Star PAKISTAN\u2019S Shoaib Akhtar, has passed a fitness test and has been named in the squad which will face Australia in a one-day international series and a one-off Twenty20 match in the UAE later this month.&#13; The selectors have named the 33-year-old following fitness tests in Lahore.&#13; He [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}