The 34-year-old, who played the last of his eight Tests against England at Faisalabad in 2000, will bolster a Pakistan attack already weakened by the loss of injured fast bowlers Shabbir Ahmed and Umer Gul.

The 16-man Test squad has three openers, five specialist middle-order batsmen, two all-rounders in Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq, two spinners and three frontline fast bowlers.

Kamran Akmal will be the only wicketkeeper after veterans Moin Khan and Rashid Latif were overlooked for a second consecutive tour.

Inzamamul Haq will lead the squad but middle-order batsman Younis Khan has replaced Yousuf Youhana as vice-captain in an apparent move to groom Younis.

"This is the best available squad," chief selector Wasim Bari told AFP.

"We hope that the young bowlers live up to the expectations and make up for Shoaib Akhtar's loss.

"We had quite a few options and after consultation with captain Inzamam and coach Bob Woolmer, we finalised the squad and will make changes for the one-day series later," said the chief selector.

Pakistan play three Tests and six one-day internationals on their first tour of India for six years but a final itinerary was expected either Sunday or Monday after Pakistan agreed to play an additional sixth one-dayer in Ahmedabad.

They had earlier refused to play a Test in the riot-hit city and the proposed Ahmedabad Test was shifted to Kolkata.

Akhtar's pace partner Moha-mmad Sami, who returned mid-way from the Australian tour in December due to a heel and back injury, will shoulder the pace attack with Navedul Hasan, left-arm pacer Mohammad Khalil and Razzaq.

Leg-spinner Danish Kaneria will head spin with Arshad and leg-spinner Afridi.

"Arshad will lend experience to the spin department which we would need in India," said Bari. Arshad has just 30 wickets in his previous eight Tests.

The lanky off-spinner from Peshawar played second fiddle to more versatile Saqlain Mushtaq, who is nursing a knee operation and was not considered, in his last Test appearance.

"Akhtar's absence will be felt but the back-up bowlers are good enough to make an impact and make up for the losses of injured trio," said coach Woolmer.

Experienced left handed opener Taufeeq Umar also staged a comeback in the Test squad after being surprisingly left out of Pakistan's last Test series in Australia.

SQUAD
Inzamamul Haq (captain), Younis Khan (vice-captain), Yousuf Youhana, Taufeeq Umar, Yasir Hameed, Salman Butt, Asim Kamal, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Danish Kaneria, Arshad Khan, Mohammad Sami, Navedul Hasan, Mohammad Khalil.