Ban vs Pak: Umar Gul replaces injured pacer Ehsan Adil in Pakistan squad

Karachi: Pakistan's list of injured players continued to grow when pace bowler Ehsan Adil was ruled out of the Bangladesh tour with a hamstring injury and has been replaced by Umar Gul, the country`s cricket board said on Saturday.

Adil joins leg spinner Yasir Shah, batsman Sohaib Maqsood and fast bowler Sohail Khan on the injured list for the Bangladesh tour. 

The Pakistan Cricket Board said veteran pace bowler Umar Gul was being rushed out to reinforce the squad in Bangladesh, which lost the first one-day international to home side on Friday. 

"Ehsan has picked up a hamstring injury and the national selectors have decided to send Gul who will fly out on the first available flight," a board spokesman said. 

Gul, who last played for Pakistan in a T20 match in December 2014, was already named in the squad for the lone T20 match in Bangladesh. 

While Sohail and Maqsood were ruled out of the Bangladesh tour after being named in the touring squad, Shah suffered an injury during a practice game before the one-day series. 

Even before and during the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand Pakistan continued to face injury problems with Junaid Khan, Bilawal Bhatti, Muhammad Hafeez and Muhammad Irfan all falling prey to different fitness problems. 

Experts put the rising number of injuries to the hard training regimen of head coach Waqar Younis. 

Waqar in a recent interview on Geo Super channel made it clear that his first priority remained to make the Pakistan team one of the fittest in world cricket. 

"I can tell you now there will be injuries and fitness problems because the players are not used to being tested to these limits but once this period is over and their bodies get used to the new training regime it will prove beneficial to Pakistan cricket in the long run," the former fast bowler said. 

Some of the national team players are also said to be unhappy with Waqar's training methods.