Just a day ahead of the deadline, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Friday announced the ICC Men’s Twenty20 Internationals World Cup squad.
Prominent names like Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman are part of the Pakistan squad for the World Cup, which begins in the United States and West Indies from June 1.
The likes of Saim Ayub, Abrar Ahmed, Usman Khan, Azam Khan and Abbas Afridi will be featuring in their first-ever T20 World Cup while this will be Mohammad Amir and Imad Wasim's first appearance in the tournament since 2016 and 2021 respectively.
It is worth mentioning that no reserves for the World Cup squad have been announced.
Babar Azam (c), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan, Azam Khan, Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Usman Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Abrar Ahmed, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf.
Player support personnel: Wahab Riaz (senior team manager), Mansoor Rana (team manager), Gary Kirsten (head coach), Azhar Mahmood (assistant coach), Simon Helmot (fielding coach), David Reid (mental performance coach), Aftab Khan (high performance coach), Cliffe Deacon (physiotherapist), Irtaza Komail (chief security officer), Mohammad Imran (masseur), Mohammad Khurram Sarwar (team doctor), Talha Ijaz (analyst), Raza Kitchlew (media and digital manager) and Drikus Saaiman (strength and conditioning coach).
“This is an extremely talented and balanced side that has a mixture of youth and experience. These players have been playing together for some time and look well prepared and settled for next month’s event," the PCB said in a press release.
“Haris Rauf is fully fit and bowling well in the nets. It would have been nice if he had gotten an outing at Headingley, but we remain confident that he will continue to maintain an upward trajectory in the upcoming matches, as he will have an important role to play along with other strike bowlers in the T20 World Cup.”
Pakistan are in Group A of the event, alongside India, Ireland, Canada and USA.
June 6: Pakistan vs USA, Dallas
June 9: Pakistan vs India, New York
June 11: Pakistan vs Canada, New York
June 16: Pakistan vs Ireland, Lauderhill
Group A: India, Pakistan, Ireland, Canada, United States
Group B: England, Australia, Namibia, Scotland, Oman
Group C: New Zealand, West Indies, Afghanistan, Uganda, Papua New Guinea
Group D: South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Netherlands, Nepal
More to follow...