Kent welcome back Pakistani pair

Azhar Mahmood and Yasir Arafat return to boost Kent’s squad for their LV County Championship match against Surrey at Canterbury.

The Pakistani all-rounders have missed the last couple of rounds of matches due to injury, but both are now fit and ready to resume for their county.

Martin Saggers is the unlucky man to miss out on the 12-man squad, with the seam attack being completed by the in-form Robbie Joseph, Amjad Khan and Ryan McLaren.

Azhar Mahmood is set to face his old county

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Neil Dexter will be hoping to get another chance to impress at the top of the order after scoring his second first-class hundred in the draw against Yorkshire last week.

Surrey are leaving their squad announcement until the morning of the game, but will not have Shoaib Akhtar available after he was denied entry to the United Kingdom yesterday due to visa problems.

Mark Ramprakash will lead the team after a resurgence in his own form, with Mark Butcher still out recovering from the knee operation he had earlier in the summer.

Chris Murtagh was called up for the rained-out clash against Lancashire last week and may well be given a chance in the team to play Kent, starting tomorrow.

Chris Schofield has been ruled out for the rest of the season, leaving the spinning duties to Saqlain Mushtaq and possibly Matthew Spriegel or Murtaza Hussain.