by Abdul Habib
2nd September 2010

It was announced today that the trio of Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif have asked that they not to be considered for the rest of the tour of England. This is because they felt that the intense media scrutiny was affecting their mental preparation and they felt it was best to pull out of the rest of the series.

Pakistani selector Mohammad Ilyas was quick to stress that this action was not in any way an admission of guilt.

"These allegations are yet to be proven and until they are all three players will be treated as innocent. It's fully understandable why they've decided to pull out of the rest of the series, especially when you consider the pressure they're under. Their every action will be under scrutiny whilst these allegations hang over their heads. Pulling out is not an admission of guilt, it's a sensible move which allows their teammates to get on and play cricket whilst this mess is sorted out." Ilyas told Cricistan.com.

On the matter of replacements for the trio, Ilyas said that no replacements would be brought in for the two T20I matches to be played in Cardiff. Pakistan's assistant manager, Shafqat Rana, also confirmed this news.

"We won't be bringing in any replacements for Butt, Asif and Aamer till the ODI series. The teams for both T20's to be played in Cardiff will be picked from the existing squad." Rana confirmed to Cricistan.com

So it looks like Akhtar and Gul will be starting both games in Cardiff and Razzaq may play the role of third seamer. However Pakistan still have Wahab Riaz to call on if they want to go in with three frontline seamers.