Pakistan squad for West Indies series lacking bowling depth

The PCB has announced the Pakistan squad for this month's series against the West Indies.

Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Danish Kaneria, Samiullah Niazi, Yasir Hameed, Shahid Nazir, Faisal Iqbal, Abdul Rehman, Umar Gul, Shoaib Malik.

Notable Exceptions
Mohammad Sami and Rana Naveed are not in the squad. Perhaps not so surprising given their lackluster form in England and in the Champions trophy.

Shahid Afridi is not in the test squad. Hallelujah!

Salman Butt has been dropped again. Yasir Hameed is back in the thick of things and will probably be fighting for a place if Imran Farhat, Hafeez or Malik fail.

I am surprised at the exclusion of Asim Kamal. It would have been nice to have his steadying presence in the team. I assume the choice was between Faisal Iqbal and Asim and since Faisal has been in the squad recently, and has pretty much done nothing untoward, he has been the selection. I think he should be in the final lineup.

Openers
By selecting 3 specialist openers (Farhat, Hafeez, Hameed) and with the makeshift opener (Malik) around, it is clear that Pakistan has not settled into steady openers. Quite a sad dilemma, putting pressure on the Y's and Inzy.

Toothless and inexperienced bowling
Abdur Rehman, Danish Kaneria, Samiullah Niazi, Shahid Nazir, and Umar Gul are the only specialist bowlers in the squad. Rehman will again sit out this test series though his selection is interesting. He was chosen for the Sri Lanka series, and did not play a game. Depending on the ground, I assume they might go for 2 spinners and 2 pacemen, as they used to do when Saqlain and Mushtaq were playing.

In any case, bowling is definitely our weak point. Who would have thought Shahid Nazir and Umar Gul would be our new ball bowlers. Niazi might not get a game if we play 2 spinners. Razzak will be playing, so he will take the role of the 3rd seamer in those conditions.

Batting
The batting will be our strength. Y's are having an incredible couple of years. Inzi is due for some runs however.