MOHAMMED AMIR could make a remarkable return to Test cricket back at the scene of his Lord’s crimes — 2146 days after Pakistan’s spot-fixing storm.
The left-arm quick has been named in his country’s 17-man squad for the first Test of a four-match series against England that begins at the home of cricket on July 14.
And Amir could be in for a hostile reception from the ‘eggs and bacon’ MCC brigade who will not have forgotten the way he, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif tarnished the fourth Test in the summer of 2010.
Amir took 6-84 bowling in England’s first innings as Stuart Broad made 169 — his one and only Test ton — with Jonathan Trott making 184 as England notched up 346 runs inside the first two days, eventually going on to make 446.
Amir, 18 at the time, kissed the Lord’s turf after clinching a five-for.
But the gloss was taken off his performance after it emerged ahead of day three that Amir had been coerced by skipper Butt into bowling a series of deliberate no-balls in return for cash.
Amir, now 24, served three months of a six-month custodial sentence at Portland Young Offenders Institution in Dorset while also being slapped by a five-year ban from cricket by the ICC.
Now he is set to make his Test comeback back at Lord’s — provided that he is granted a visa to tour.
Pakistan playing legend and chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq believes that paperwork should prove a formality.
He said: “Amir is expected to get visa in the next couple of days and [Mohammad] Hafeez is also cleared by medical staff so we have included him.”
Since returning from his suspension last September Amir has been a regular feature in Pakistan’s one-day and Twenty20 sides, but has yet to play a five-game team for his country.
The Test squad will be led by 42-year-old Misbah-ul-Haq, who took on the captaincy in 2010 just a few months after the spot-fixing scandal.
Opening batsman Mohammad Hafeez, who missed the Pakistan team’s two-week physical training camp at an Army college, is also included in the 17 after being cleared of knee injury.
Besides star batsman Younis Khan, Azhar Ali and Hafeez are the only two who have played previously played Tests in England before.
The team are likely to leave for the tour on June 18 and hold a training camp in Hampshire before their first match against Somerset starting on July 5 and another against Sussex from July 8.
Pakistan squad: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Shan Masood, Sami Aslam, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Iftikhar Ahmed, Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Sohail Khan, Imran Khan.
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