KARACHI: Pakistan will be without leading paceman, Junaid Khan for the series against New Zealand after he was advised to undergo another six weeks of rehabilitation following his knee injury.

The 24-year-old left armer, who has been Pakistan's best fast bowler in recent months, had to return home from the United Arab Emirates earlier this month at the start of the series against Australia after sustaining a knee injury during a practice session.

“Junaid was examined by an orthopedic surgeon, Dr Waqar Farooqi. He was advised to continue with the existing protocol of rehabiliation with gradual increments over the next three weeks,” the Pakistan Cricket Board said in a statement on Friday.

“His MRI will be repeated after another six weeks to measure improvement.”

Pakistan had also lost another left arm paceman, Wahab Riaz, with a knee injury during the second one-day international against Australia last month and he also had to return home for rehabilitation at the national cricket academy.

The PCB reported that Wahab had shown “impressive” improvement.

“For the last two days, he has had pain-free bowling and batting sessions and his match fitness will be ascertained after he plays a first-class match in first week of November,” the statement said.

The news came as Pakistan, following their disappointing sweep of one-day defeats by Australia, continued their revival after winning the first test in Dubai by dominating the Australian attack in Abu Dhabi on Friday.

At the end of the second day, Pakistan had been able to declare on 570 for six and then reduced Australia to 22 for one by the close.

Pakistani selectors had also rested paceman, Mohammad Irfan, for both the tests against Australia and New Zealand in order to nurse him through to the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand early next year.

After completing their test series against Australia, Pakistan begin their first test against New Zealand on Nov. 9.