Bradford Park Avenue’s utility man Amjad Iqbal is stepping into the boots of City’s Zesh Rehman – on the international stage at least.

Both were called up by Pakistan for the Asian Cham-pionships in Bangladesh but, while Iqbal made himself available, Bantams club captain Rehman declined to take part in the tournament.

The Avenue star flew to the team’s base this week in time for the preparations for yesterday’s opening game, which saw them lose 1-0 to highly-fancied Sri Lanka.

Mohammed Shahnawaz, a scout for the national side, said: “Amjad made his debut for Pakistan two years back in the World Cup qualifiers against Iraq and he has been on our radar ever since.

“He has been quite unfortunate that he hasn’t had more caps because there have been a lot of times when the country wanted him but he was unavailable.”

A mixture of work and club commitments, plus injuries, have seen the former Thackley player, who works as an industrial chemist, miss out several times for his country.

Shahnawaz said: “When he was at Farsley Celtic, he was excused because they were in a relegation fight.

“In April of this year, he pulled out of a squad to play Sri Lanka because of the attack on the cricketers. None of this has counted against him because it is all very understandable.

“The last time the Pakistan coach came to see him play, he was out for five weeks with a dislocated shoulder but he wasn’t overlooked.

“Everyone is delighted that he is back in the team and, with Zesh ruling himself out, a big responsibility is on Amjad’s shoulders now.”

Iqbals’ versatility has come in handy, with Shahnawaz adding: “When he played in the two games against Iraq – at home in Pakistan and in Jordan (when the match was played at a neutral venue) – he was in midfield.

“Now he has to be at centre back, the position Zesh would have been in.

“The coach has no problem with that because Amjad is equally accomplished in either position and will bring qualities to the team.

“He is one of four English based non-league players in the current squad and we have one former Hudders-field Town man as well.”

Pakistan face host nation Bangladesh tomorrow, who won the opening game of the tournament 4-1 against Bhutan.

The other group consists of India, Afghanistan, Nepal and holders The Maldives, with two teams from each one qualifying for the semi-finals.

Shahnawaz added: “Amjad and his centre back partner had never played together and had only two training sessions to get used to each other.

“Amjad will definitely be playing (tomorrow). In fact, all the guys will be because it was a good performance.

“We just couldn’t score the goal to get back into the game after Sri Lanka’s penalty.”