Worcestershire's red ball overseas player, Azhar Ali, has been included in the Pakistan squad for next month’s two-Test tour of Sri Lanka.

Azhar has been in superb form during the first half of the season at New Road, scoring over 500 runs in the LV=Insurance County Championship.

He has also been an invaluable help to youngsters like Jack Haynes and Josh Baker in passing on advice and experience.

He is available for the encounter with Glamorgan at New Road beginning this Sunday (June 26) before linking up with his country for the series.

The call-up means he will miss two Championship games because of Pakistan’s trip to Sri Lanka, against Middlesex (away) and Derbyshire (home).

Azhar will be looking to add to his 94 Tests and 7,021 runs for his country before returning to New Road for the final four Championship games of the summer in September.

Pakistan have a three-day warm-up match from July 11 to 13 before the first Test in Galle (July 16-20) and the second in Colombo (July 24 to 28).