They have instead recalled batsman Misbah-ul-Haq, all rounder Yasir Arafat and included youngster Fawad Alam in the 15-member party for the Sept. 11-24 tournament.

• Twenty20 World Cup schedule

Chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed told a news conference on Tuesday that selectors felt Yousuf and Razzaq did not fit in as Twenty20 cricket was more suited to younger players and needed agile fielders.

"These two remain our most experienced performers and will top our list when we sit down to pick the teams for the home Test series against South Africa," he said.

The decision to drop Yousuf and Razzaq comes at a time when both have yet to sign new central contracts offered to them by the Pakistan board. Both are said to have been made lucrative offers by the organisers of a new Indian Twenty20 league.

"The selectors can make their choices, it is their decision," Yousuf told Reuters. "But I have always maintained that I was keen to play in the Twenty20 form of cricket."

Yousuf, 32, last year set a new Test record for most runs in a calendar year scoring 1,788 runs with nine hundreds and has played in 75 Tests and 241 one-dayers.

Razzaq, 27, has remained Pakistan's premier all rounder in the last nine years having played in 231 one-dayers and 46 Tests.

Pakistan squad: Shoaib Malik [Images] (captain), Salman Butt [Images], Imran Nazir [Images], Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi [Images], Misbah-ul-Haq, Fawad Alam, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez [Images], Mohammad Asif [Images], Shoaib Akhtar [Images], Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar, Yasir Arafat, Abdul Rehman.