Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, will replace Australia's Luke Pomersbach in the St Lucia Zouks side for the inaugural Caribbean Premier League season. Pomersbach has been forced to pull out of the tournament, which begins next week, on compassionate leave. Misbah will enter the competition fresh from a Man-of-the-Series performance in the one-day series against West Indies, which ended on Wednesday.

"Although it is unfortunate that Luke Pomersbach will not be joining us, we have a high-quality replacement in Misbah-ul-Haq," Matthew Maynard, the Zouks assistant coach, said. "He brings with him a vast amount of experience of international cricket, something that will only be of benefit to our younger players, and his latest Twenty20 performance speaks for itself. On top of that he has been in excellent form during the recent ODI series against West Indies so he is completely acclimatised and match-ready and that is an added plus for us and for him."

Misbah, who led Faisalabad Wolves to victory in Pakistan's Super Eight T-20 Cup in March, will join Darren Sammy and Tino Best, as well as overseas players Herschelle Gibbs, Albie Morkel and Tamim Iqbal at the Zouks. He was the highest run-getter in the recently concluded series against West Indies, with 260 runs in five ODIs, including four fifties.

The Caribbean Premier League starts on July 30 in Barbados and concludes on August 24 in Trinidad.