It is an honour to lead Pakistan team in tour of Australia: Babar Azam

SYDNEY: Pakistan's newly-appointed T20I skipper Babar Azam, who has been filled with great excitement to lead Pakistan cricket team in tour of Australia, expressed his confidence in the squad on Sunday.

Azam, the number one batsman in Twenty20 rankings, has tweeted: "A great honor to lead Pakistan cricket team in this historic tour of Australia. Pakistan is always a force to reckon with and I am confident in this young & impressive team of ours. #RiseAndRise #PakistanZindabad".

Earlier this month, Azam replaced Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was dumped as skipper and left out of the squad following the shocking 3-0 rout of the Twenty20 side — ranked number one in the world — at the hands of an inexperienced Sri Lanka.

Sarfaraz was also removed as Test skipper and was replaced by Azhar Ali.

 Pakistan will play three T20s against Australia, the first of which will be played on November 3 in Sydney. The second T20 will be held in Canberra on November 5, while the third in Perth on November 8.

They will hold their first practice match against the hosts on October 30.

The first Test will be played from November 21-25 in Brisbane, while the second will be held in Adelaide from November 29 till December 3.

Twenty20 Squad

Babar Azam (c), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Imamul Haq, Shadab Khan, Moosa Khan, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Rizwan, Wahab Riaz, Khushdil Shah, and Usman Qadir.

Test Squad

Azhar Ali (c), Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Imamul Haq, Imran Khan senior, Iftikhar Ahmed, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rizwan, Moosa Khan, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood and Yasir Shah.