Inzamam-ul Haq, who retired from the one-day internationals and relinquished Test captaincy after Pakistan's World Cup debacle, may be signalled end of the road for him in Tests as well by ignoring him for the home series against South Africa.
A Pakistan Cricket Board official said it had almost been decided in principle not to retain Inzamam in Pakistan's Test squad for the September-October series.
"The people forming the PCB think-tank are more or less convinced that Inzamam should not be a part of Pakistan's Test squad," he was quoted as saying by The News on Thursday.
The 37-year-old had said he was still good enough to play the longer version of the game but top Board officials do not seem to be agreeing with him.
"They believe Inzamam is now over-the-hill and also blame him for Pakistan's humiliating World Cup performance. The Board and the members of the newly-appointed national selection committee believe that it is time Pakistan brought in new faces in a bid to rebuild the squad for the 2011 World Cup to be played in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh," the paper said.
The burly batsman from Multan has scored 8813 runs in 119 Tests at a handsome average of 50.07 with the help of 25 hundreds and 46 fifties. His one-day career spanned over 378 games in which he scored 11739 runs with 10 centuries and 83 fifties.
The PCB official said at this juncture, Pakistan cricket needed to look beyond individuals and take decisions in the best interest of the team. "We need to work for collective interest because personal milestones mean nothing when it comes to the future of our team."
