Karachi Whites to miss Misbah as T20 Cup begins today

KARACHI: Karachi Whites will miss Misbah-ul-Haq when they take on Karachi Blues in their opener of the National T20 Cup 2016 which begins at the Pindi Stadium in Rawalpindi on Thursday (today).

The match starts at 4pm. In the second outing of the day, Lahore Blues will take on Lahore Whites at 8pm at the same venue.

Misbah might miss a few more matches or the whole of the event due to illness of his father-in-law.

A source in Karachi Whites said that Misbah had told the team management he might join the side later in the event.

Pakistan’s prolific batsman Asad Shafiq has been inducted in the side in place of Misbah.

“Asad was an automatic choice,” Karachi Whites’ coach Saleem Jaffar told ‘The News’ from Rawalpindi on Wednesday.

Saleem said that the format of the event was good. “I think the format is good because the youngsters will get ample chance to perform which will help them make places in the Pakistan Super League (PSL),” said Saleem, a former left-arm Test pacer.

He said that the weather was warm in Rawalpindi, but as the matches would be in the evening and at night, it would not be much of a problem.

Akbar-ur-Rehman will lead Karachi Whites who also have Azam Hussain, Tabish Khan, Danish Aziz, Tariq Haroon, Asif Zakir, Ahsan Ali, Saud Shakeel, Faraz Ahmed Khan, Mir Hamza, Sohail Khan, Ramiz Raja Junior, Mohammad Hassan and Zain Abbas.

Hard-hitting international batsman Khalid Latif will lead Karachi Blues who also have Mohammad Asghar, Shahzaib Hasan, Saifullah Bangash, Ali Khan, Khurram Manzoor, Rumman Raees, Saeed Ajmal, Zohaib Shera, Mohammad Sami, Bilawal Bhatti, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Waqas and Fazal Subhan. Faisal Tahir of Karachi has been inducted in the side in place of injured Usama Mir.

Karachi Blues’ coach Azam Khan said they expected to win the event. “Karachi has reached finals eight times. We are a balanced side and hopefully we will win the event this time,” Azam told this correspondent.

However Azam was quick to add that the event would be an absorbing one. “All teams are good and I expect competitive cricket. As every side will play a minimum of seven matches it will be a real test for the players to show their fitness,” Azam added.

Lahore Whites will be led by Test stumper Kamran Akmal. They also have Umar Akmal, Salman Butt, Kashif Bhatti, Ehsan Adil, Shahid Yousuf and Ammad Butt, who has been impressive over the last one year.

Ahmed Shehzad-led Lahore Blues also have hard-hitting opener Nauman Anwar, Saad Nasim, Naved Yasin, Nasir Jamshed and Rahat Ali, who played against England in the recent four-match Test series. Rawalpindi, Peshawar, FATA and Islamabad are the other teams featuring in the competitions, which will conclude on September 16.

The eight teams will play under single league system in the 23-day event. The leading four outfits will qualify for the semi-finals which will be held at Multan Stadium, Multan, on September 15. The final will be held on September 16 at the same venue. For the semi-finals the teams will be re-drafted in order to provide room to star cricketers back from England after the ongoing series.

Pakistan will play their last ODI against England on September 4 and a T20 International on September 7.

The first round, which will carry 14 matches, will be held till September 2 at the Pindi Stadium.

The second round, which will carry 17 games, will be conducted at Multan Stadium from September 5-16. Two matches will be held a day.