LAHORE - The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Sunday said that Test and ODI captain Misbahul Haq made improvement on his hamstring injury but still he needed more time to be fully fit.
In a statement on the fitness status of Misbah, Junaid Khan, Sohaib Maqsood and Ehsan Adil, the cricket board did not make it clear when these players would be available to play again. The statement, full of medical terms and explanations, and prepared by PCB GM Medical Dr Sohail Saleem, stated that Misbah needed more time for a complete recovery. Initially, it was said that Misbah required four to six weeks to make a complete recovery from his hamstring problem.
Misbah strained one of his hamstrings while fielding against New Zealand in the recently concluded ODI series. "Fresh scans done on Misbah suggested that the swelling/edema around his strained muscles has reduced to a great extent. His scans suggested a Grade II strain of the hamstring. Misbah thus progressed on to phase two of his rehabilitation, after the criteria for this progression were met,"
"He now has a normal walking stride without any pain, jogging too is pain-free and his resistance testing against 70 per cent of manual resistance is pain-free.  Apart from other criteria, Misbah needs to achieve pain-free full strength and range of motion and replicate his sports specific movements near maximal speed without pain, before he is declared as fit to take the field in Pakistan colours," the statement added.
About Junaid, the statement said that he was recovering well and has started bowling in the nets.
Interestingly, the PCB had named Junaid to lead the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa team in the Pentangular Cup one-day tournament in Karachi starting from December 31.