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KARACHI, March 18: Pakistan are entitled to add another player to their 14 for the Champions Trophy contest in Sharjah to be played between April 7 and 16. England and India are the other two contenders in the double-league competition.

According to reliable sources, the selection committee is unaware of the playing conditions of the Champions Trophy and thus when they announced the squads for the Indian and Sharjah tri-nation series, they named 14 players only.

The provision for the 15th player may turn out to be a blessing in disguise for opener Wajahatullah Wasti who returned from Bangladesh. His place was taken by all-rounder Abdul Razzak for the Indian triangular beginning at Jamshedpur from Friday.

Wasti, who scored a century in each innings at Lahore earlier this month, could only score 18 with the bat against Bangladesh but picked up three wickets for 36 runs. His performance showed that he had the potential of becoming a utility cricketer for Pakistan. In addition to this, he is also one of the 19 probables for the World Cup and as things stand as present, he has an outstanding chance of making into the 14-man squad.

Meanwhile, the cricket board sources said on Thursday that March 31 was the last date for the submission of the 14-man squad to the organizing committee of the World Cup. The selectors were 10 days late in meeting the Feb 28 deadline for submitting a 19-man provisional squad. And things aren't very different this time either as so far no selection committee meeting date has been announced.

According to sources, the selection committee was expecting for a discussion with the team management. But that is out of question as the captain and coach are not scheduled to return home before April 17 as they fly directly to Sharjah from India.

However, team sources said Mushtaq Ahmad and Waqar Younis, not in the India and Sharjah tours team, are set to stage a comeback in place of Arshad Khan and Shahid Nazir respectively. ``We want to go with experience and in the background of their knowledge about English conditions, their selection is guaranteed,'' a senior team official told Dawn from Jamshedpur.

Mushtaq has represented Somerset in five seasons while Younis played for Surrey and Glamorgan for seven seasons.

The tie for the 14th place is between Imran Nazir, Wajahatullah Wasti and Mohammad Wasim. ``It has to be decided if we want to bolster the middle-order or take another opener. In terms of experience, all the three are raw. But that has to be decided who would be more useful in English conditions in May and June when it is very cold and the atmosphere heavy,'' sources said.

The 14 for India and Sharjah are:

Saeed Anwar, Shahid Afridi, Ijaz Ahmad, Yousuf Youhana, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Imran Nazir, Moin Khan, Wasim Akram, Azhar Mahmood, Abdul Razzak, Saqlain Mushtaq, Arshad Khan, Shoaib Akhtar and Shahid Nazir.

Five remaining probables for the World Cup are:

Waqar Younis, Mushtaq Ahmad, Wajahat-ullah Wasti, Mohammad Wasim and Sajid Shah.