Southampton: Pakistan batsman Fawad Alam finally made a comeback to the Test team, after a gap of 10 years and 8 months as captain Azhar Ali won the toss and elected to bat in the second Test against England at The Rose Bowl on Thursday.
Fawad, who had made his Test debut in July 2009, had last played a Test match for Pakistan against New Zealand at Dunedin in November 2009, before being dropped from the side.
Fawad missed 88 Tests before making a comeback, which is the 7th longest gap between two matches in the format and second longest gap for a Pakistan cricketer after Younis Ahmed, who had missed 104 Tests between 1969-1987 before coming back in the team.
He also became the 25th man (and second from Pakistan) to make another Test appearance after waiting at least 10 years. He joined Younis Ahmed, who played in 1987 - 17 years after his previous Test.
The left-handed batsman is playing the fourth Test match of his career. In his three Tests before this game, he managed to score 250 runs at a decent average of 41.66 with a hundred on debut against Sri Lanka in Colombo.
Alam, who scored consistently in Pakistan's first-class cricket in recent times, was was ignored by Pakistan coach Misbah-ul-Haq in series opener. However, he returned to the team for second Test in place of all-rounder Shadab Khan.(UNI)
