England tour: Ex-captain Sarfraz also makes a comeback, Haider named in Pak squad

LAHORE: Haider Ali, the Pakistan Under-19 batsman and one of the players to watch-out for, has been named in a 29-player squad which also includes former Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed for three Tests and three T20Is against England to be played in August-September.

An extended squad, including white-ball specialists, is being sent to England as the players, in accordance with series SOPs in the wake of Covid-19, will remain in England from start to finish.Haider had an outstanding 2019-20 season, following which he earned an emerging contract for the 2020-21 season.

He was Pakistan U-19’s second most successful batsman with 317 runs against South Africa U-19 in June, fifth leading run-getter with 218 runs in the ACC Emerging Teams Cup in Bangladesh, aggregated 645 runs – including a century in the final – at just under 50 in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, finished as Pakistan’s third-best batsman with 107 runs in the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup 2020 before contributing 239 runs in nine matches at a strike-rate of over 158 for Peshawar Zalmi in the unfinished HBL Pakistan Super League 2020.

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.

Apart from Haider, Kashif, Sohail and the other centrally contracted players, excluding Haris Sohail, the selectors have named Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Imran Khan, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez and Wahab Riaz.

The breakdown of the 29-player squad is: Openers (4): Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq and Shan MasoodMiddle-order batsmen (9): Azhar Ali (captain), Babar Azam (Test vice-captain and T20I captain), Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, and Shoaib Malik Wicketkeepers (2): Mohammad Rizwan and Sarfraz Ahmed

Fast bowlers (10): Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imran Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari and Wahab Riaz

Spinners (4): Imad Wasim, Kashif Bhatti, Shadab Khan and Yasir Shah.

Officials: Misbah-ul-Haq: Head Coach; Shahid Aslam (Assistant to Head Coach); Waqar Younis: Bowling Coach; Abdul Majeed: Fielding Coach; Yasir Malik: Strength and Conditioning Coach; Talha Butt: Team Analyst; Cliffe Deacon: Physiotherapist; Malang Ali: Masseur; Mansoor Rana (Team Manager); Col (retd) Usman Riffat Anwari: Team Security Manager; Raza Rashid: Team Media Manager; Additional team management: Younis Khan: Batting Coach for England tour Mushtaq Ahmed: Spin bowling coach for England tour; Dr Sohail Saleem: Team Doctor for England tour.