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Waqar Younis will continue to captain Pakistan in both Tests and One-day Internationals, ending speculation at least for the time being, of a separate skipper for one segment of the game.

A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) spokesman told Dawn Friday from Lahore that Waqar has been retained captain for Zimbabwe, the first leg of the twin tour of the African continent.

"Waqar Younis will lead both Test as well as One-day International sides during the Zimbabwe tour.

"Chairman of selectors, Wasim Bari, will announce the squads Saturday during a press conference at 1.00pm at Gaddafi Stadium," the spokesman said.

When asked what will be the composition of the two squads to be named, the PCB spokesman informed that 15 players will be picked for the two-match Test series and 16 will form the contingent for five One-day Internationals.

PCB spokesman added the selectors may name a new vice-captain to replace Younis Khan, who was deputy to Waqar in the just concluded offshore home series against Australia.

Pakistan's tour of Zimbabwe, which starts when the squad leaves for Harare next Friday, features Tests at Harare (Nov 9-13) and Bulawayo (Nov 16-20) and one-dayers at Bulawayo (Nov 23 and 24) and Harare (Nov 27, 30 and Dec 1).

Pakistan will then hop over to South Africa on Dec 2 for another series of five One-day Internationals and two further Tests, slated for Durban (Dec 26-30) and Cape Town (Jan 2-6).

While on the second leg of their tour, Pakistan will name their final party of 15 for the World Cup in South Africa, starting from Feb 8. Therefore, the next eight weeks will also serve as a launching pad for next year's mega event but with Pakistan cricket in complete disarray at the moment and with morale and confidence at its lowest ebb, it will require a lot of spadework to build a squad good enough to compete against the world's best in the toughest World Cup pool.

At the moment, the rubber-stamp selection committee of Bari and his members, Shafiq Ahmed and Abdul Raqeeb, are confronted with some difficult decisions in the aftermath of what happened in Colombo and Sharjah in recent weeks.

The availability of senior professionals like Wasim Akram, Saeed Anwar and Yousuf Youhana offers the wealth of experience that was sorely missing in the Australian Tests.

Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, who has vowed to take all matters into his hands, is the one who'll be calling the final shots before the squads are read out in public Saturday afternoon.

Even the PCB chairman will agree that Pakistan's major worry is the brittleness at the top of the order. Since August 2001, when Pakistan played Bangladesh in the Asian Test Championship opener in Multan, no less than seven different opening combinations have been tried in 10 Tests.

The opening stand in 16 innings of these Tests averages 31 runs per wicket. And only two partnerships were worth 100 or more. Saeed Anwar and debutant Taufiq Umar added 168 against the Bangladeshis in Multan.

Taufiq then combined with the recalled Shadab Kabir to put on exactly 100 against the same opponents at Dhaka in January.

Since then, the remaining 14 opening stands on average have yielded just 16 runs per wicket. The figures include the 91-run alliance between Taufiq and the unreliable Imran Nazir in the second innings of the Colombo Test when Australian fielders were over generous and dropped a number of sitters.

Barring the Test against New Zealand at Lahore last May, Taufiq has figured in all remaining Tests while the tried and generally found wanting individuals like Shahid Afridi, Imran Nazir, Imran Farhat and Naved Latif were exposed to the new ball.

Shadab was unceremoniously given the chop after the Bangladesh tour when he was hard done by a harsh umpiring verdict in the Chittagong Test.

Had the selectors given the left-hander an extended run, who knows Shadab, a technically sound player, might have gone from strength to strength.

Shadab, who turns 25 next month, since then had a successful Patron's Trophy last season for Pakistan Customs, chalking up 679 runs in nine matches in the most competitive domestic first-class tournament with two centuries. He was even more prolific in the national one-day event, making 342 runs in eight matches while averaging 68.40.

Picking a cricket team in this country is arguably the most difficult job, especially in bad times. Shadab's becoming a whimsical selection victim is just an example how things operate in the PCB. Therefore, one can only guess the likely squads for Zimbabwe tour.

Test squad: Waqar Younis (captain), Taufiq Umar, Saeed Anwar, Younis Khan, Yousuf Youhana, Faisal Iqbal, Hasan Raza, Rashid Latif, Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Zahid, Mohammad Sami, Imran Farhat and Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan.

One-day squad: Waqar Younis (captain), Shahid Afridi, Saeed Anwar, Younis Khan, Yousuf Youhana, Misbah-ul-Haq, Imran Farhat, Shoaib Malik, Rashid Latif, Moin Khan, Saqlain Mushtaq, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Abdur Rauf, Mohammad Sami/Mohammad Zahid, Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan.

© Dawn