Hasan Ali makes his return to Pakistan Test squad, while Mohammad Abbas misses out.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), on Friday (Jan 15) announced the Pakistan squad for the upcoming two-Test series against South Africa. South Africa are coming to Pakistan for the first time since 2007 and will play a T20I series as well.
The PCB named squad sees the return of pacer Hasan Ali in the team, while the likes of Shan Masood, Mohammad Abbas, and Haris Sohail have been dropped. Imam-Ul-Haq was also missing from the list, which sees Babar Azam returning as captain of the team. Another major name missing is that of Asad Shafique.
Mohammad Rizwan and Sarfaraz Ahmed are the wicketkeepers in the squad, while Fawad Alam held onto his place after his century in New Zealand. Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi will get help from Faheem Ashraf and Yasir Shah in the bowling department.
The squad sees plenty of new talent and fresh faces in Abdullah Shafique, Imran Butt, Kamran Ghulam, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel, and experienced pacer and domestic cricket star Tabish Khan. This is the first national call-up for 36-year-old Tabish Khan who has 598 wickets in 137 FC games for Karachi and Sindh.
The squad was chosen by Pakistan’s new chief selector Muhammad Wasim and the squad will be reduced to 16 players after a week.
Pakistan will play the first Test against South Africa at the National Stadium in Karachi from January 26, followed by the second one at Rawalpindi (February 4-8) and three T20 Internationals in Lahore.
Pakistan squad for South Africa Test series:
Babar Azam (C), Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah, Abid Ali, Abdullah Shafique, Imran Butt, Azhar Ali, Fawad Alam, Kamran Ghulam, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Nawaz, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Tabish Khan