KARACHI: Pakistan disabled cricket team coach Sabih Azhar said on Monday that a balanced squad had been selected and it would live up to the expectations in the ICC Academy PD T20 International Cricket Tournament which is to be held at the ICC Academy in Dubai from October 20 to 24.
“We have picked a balanced team. A few young players have also been given chance on merit and we hope that the boys will show their potential,” Azhar told a news conference here at the National Stadium on Saturday.
Pakistan’s newly-appointed skipper Jahanzeb Tiwana was also present.
Pakistan will leave for Dubai from here on Tuesday (today).
Sabih said that a lot of improvement had been seen in the fitness level of the boys. “During the last few tournaments players had faced fitness issues. We have focused on this matter this time through a trainer. The players have gone through different fitness tests and we were amazed that their fitness was close to that of normal players,” Sabih said.
The final 15 players have been picked from a pool of 30.
Following the pullout of India and Afghanistan, only Pakistan, England and Bangladesh will be featuring in the competition.
The Green-shirts will begin their journey on October 20 with a match against England.
They will face Bangladesh on October 21, and England on October 22. The two leading sides will meet in the decider on October 24.
Skipper Tiwana said that his side was prepared both mentally and physically for the challenge. “We have a good side. Our batting is very strong. We have seven to eight match-winners and we are confident that we will win the title,” Multan-born Tiwana said.
The team practised for five days here at National Stadium.
Squad: Hasnain Alam, Rao Javed, Mohammad Matloob, Malik Jahanzeb Tiwana, Mohammad Danish, Rehan Ghani Mirza, Abdullah Ijaz, Zubair Salim, Fayyaz Ahmed, Wajid Alam, Adil Mehmood Abbasi, Syed Sher Ali, Farhan Salim, Mohammad Shehbaz, Syed Nihar Alam Shah Officials: Amiruddin Ansari, Mohammad Nizam, Sabih Azhar, Mohammad Javed, Nouman Palekar, Ali Christian, Shakir Khiji