Pakistan may well have shut the door on a late cricket World Cup call up for controversial spinner Saaed Ajmal, after spurning a chance to draft him into the squad as an injury replacement.

Pakistan opener and handy offspinner Mohammad Hafeez was on Sunday reportedly ruled out of the tournament starting next weekend, after suffering an ankle injury in a one-day international last week.

The injury to Hafeez, who was awaiting a chance to test his suspect bowling action after he was recently suspended, gave Pakistan the opportunity to recall Ajmal.

He was suspended last year for an illegal bowling action after being reported during a Test against Sri Lanka in August.

On Saturday, the International Cricket Council approved the contentious bowling action of the 37-year-old offspinner, who has been a mainstay of Pakistan’s one-day attack in recent years.

However, AFP on Sunday reported batsman Nasir Jamshed would take the place of Hafeez, who it said had been advised to rest for three weeks.

“Hafeez has been ruled out of the World Cup and will return home with the first available flight and in his place Nasir Jamshed has been summoned,” a Pakistan Cricket Board spokesman told AFP.

Before news of Hafeez’s withdrawal, Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq remained optimistic about his side’s World Cup prospects, despite their poor recent form in the format.

They have lost ten of their last 12 ODIS and haven’t won a limited overs series since December 2013, but he said his team was capable of turning things around.

“I’m pretty excited about this team,” he said.

“There’s a batch of youngsters and a few seniors there and we could really surprise anybody at any stage.

“I’m really hopeful that we’ll improve our performance and we have yet to play our best cricket.”