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Pakistan announce 29-member squad for three Tests and three T20Is in England
Uncapped Haider Ali, who had an outstanding 2019-20 season, following which he earned an emerging contract for the 2020-21 season, has been named in the squad for the England tour.
In an unprecedented move, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced a large 29-member squad for their three Tests and three T20Is in England, starting next month. An extended squad, including white-ball specialists,was named in accordance with series SOPs in the wake of Covid-19. The new rules demand all the travelling players to remain in England from start to finish.
Uncapped Haider Ali, who had an outstanding 2019-20 season, following which he earned an emerging contract for the 2020-21 season, has been named in the squad for the England tour.
He was Pakistan U19’s second most successful batsman with 317 runs against South Africa U19 in June.
Besides Haider, Sindh’s Kashif Bhatti is the other uncapped player in the side. Kashif was in the Test squad against Australia and Sri Lanka but did not play and was also named in the probables for the Rawalpindi Test against Bangladesh.
Returning to the national colours is fast bowler Sohail Khan, whose ninth and last Test for Pakistan was the 2016 Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. In the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2019-20, he took 22 wickets in nine matches, while he grabbed seven wickets in eight HBL PSL 2020 matches for Quetta Gladiators.
Apart from Haider, Kashif, Sohail and the centrally contracted players, excluding Haris Sohail, the selectors have named Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Haris Rauf, Imran Khan, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain, Shoaib Malik and Wahab Riaz.
Fast bowlers Hasan Ali and Mohammad Amir, and middle-order batsman Haris were not available for selection. Hasan is suffering from a back injury, Amir withdrew so that he can be at the birth of his second child in August while Haris took the option of pulling out of the tour due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The breakdown of the Pakistan 29-player squad:
Openers (4) – Abid Ali (Sindh, Lahore Qalandars), Fakhar Zaman (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Lahore Qalandars), Imam-ul-Haq (Balochistan, Peshawar Zalmi) and Shan Masood (Southern Punjab, Multan Sultans)
Middle-order batsmen (9) – Azhar Ali (captain) (Central Punjab), Babar Azam (Test vice-captain and T20I captain) (Central Punjab, Karachi Kings), Asad Shafiq (Sindh, Multan Sultans), Fawad Alam (Sindh), Haider Ali (Northern, Peshawar Zalmi), Iftikhar Ahmad (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Karachi Kings), Khushdil Shah (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Multan Sultans), Mohammad Hafeez (Southern Punjab, Lahore Qalandars) and Shoaib Malik (Southern Punjab, Peshawar Zalmi)
Wicket-keepers (2) - Mohammad Rizwan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Karachi Kings) and Sarfaraz Ahmed (Sindh, Quetta Gladiators)
Fast bowlers (10) – Faheem Ashraf (Central Punjab, Islamabad United), Haris Rauf (Northern, Lahore Qalandars), Imran Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Mohammad Abbas (Southern Punjab), Mohammad Hasnain (Sindh, Quetta Gladiators), Naseem Shah (Central Punjab, Quetta Gladiators), Shaheen Shah Afridi (Northern, Lahore Qalandars), Sohail Khan (Sindh, Quetta Gladiators), Usman Shinwari (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Lahore Qalandars) and Wahab Riaz (Southern Punjab, Peshawar Zalmi)
Spinners (4) – Imad Wasim (Northern, Karachi Kings), Kashif Bhatti (Sindh), Shadab Khan (Northern, Islamabad United) and Yasir Shah (Balochistan, Peshawar Zalmi).
Commenting on the squad, chief selector and head coach Misbah-ul-Haq said: “The selectors have picked a squad which gives us the best chance of success in England. It was a challenging process as the players have not played for an extended period of time, but nevertheless, with the month that we will have in England and the intense training we will undergo, we are confident we will get the players up to the mark to be ready for the three Tests.
“But the main focus of the selectors has been red-ball cricket, which we will play for nearly two months with the T20Is to be played at the backend of the ICC World Test Championship fixtures.
“The series against England will be challenging as our players have not played any competitive cricket since March, while the home team will come following a series against the West Indies. This means we will have to hit the ground running as soon as we land in England and make the best use of the training sessions and match practice before we enter the first Test.
