*LAHORE: Pakistan included five uncapped players in the 16-man squadannounced Sunday for their Tests against Ireland and England starting nextmonth, with an eye on the World Cup next year.*

The five include openers Fakhar Zaman, 28, and Imam-ul-Haq, 22. BatsmenUsman Salahuddin and Saad Ali, and allrounder Faheem Ashraf are the otherthree uncapped members of the squad.

“The World Cup next year is in England. So we’ve decided to call up severalyoung players to give them exposure to those conditions,” chief selectorInzamam-ul-Haq said at a press conference.

“This is a great opportunity for us, particularly our batsmen, to gainexperience in this conditions.”

Pakistan suffered a major setback last week when ace leg-spinner Yasir Shahwas ruled out of the tour with a hip bone fracture.

Shah was replaced with teenager Shadab Khan, who has only played one Test.

“Yasir’s absence is a big loss for us,” Haq said.

“If we look at his numbers for the last two years, he has more wickets thanany other bowler for Pakistan. He was our strike bowler. He played a bigpart in all the games we won.”

Haq said selectors had tried strengthen the side’s batting, which wasweakened after the retirement last year of Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan.

The 32-year-old batsman Fawad Alam failed to make the squad again despitehis strong domestic form.

Mohammad Amir will lead the pace attack, for which Rahat Ali was recalled,but there was no place for Wahab Riaz.

Sarfraz Ahmed, the captain, is the only specialist wicketkeeper in thesquad.

Ireland will play their first-ever Test against Pakistan from May 11-15 inDublin. Pakistan will then play two Tests against England — at Lord’s (May24-28) and Headingley (June 1-5).

Squad: Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Azhar Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Sami Aslam,Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Usman Salahuddin, SaadAli, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Rahat Ali,Mohammad Abbas. APP/AFP