The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), on December 19, 2023, announced a 17-member Pakistan squad for the upcoming five-T20I series against New Zealand in January next year. Pakistan is currently in Australia for the three-Test series and lost the first match in Perth by 360 runs.
Shaheen Afridi will lead Pakistan for the first time in T20Is, as the series will begin on January 12 in Auckland. However, players like Mohammad Haris and Shadab Khan are missing from the squad. Chief selector Wahab Riaz revealed that Mohammad Haris has been rested and Shadab Khan is yet to recover from his ankle injury.
“We have rested Mohammad Haris for this series. We know his capability and he is part of our plans going forward. There were some domestic performers in First Class cricket who we wanted to give a chance and increase our pool of players, so we rested Haris from this tour,” Wahab was quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
“Shadab Khan is a very important member of Pakistan T20 cricket. Unfortunately, he suffered an ankle injury during the National T20 and requires two further weeks of rehab. After that, he'll be available to bowl,” Wahab added.
Pakistan has focused on firepower in batting order with the likes of Saim Ayub, Haseebullah Khan, and Sahibzada Farhan being picked and Azam Khan returns to the side as well. Mainstays like Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, and Mohammad Rizwan are present to guide the young guns.
“Haseebullah played some impactful innings in the PSL in the middle order and has performed a lot in white ball cricket. He opens in domestic cricket but for team adjustment, we need to develop players for numbers four to seven. Khushdil Shah, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Shoaib Malik, Faheem Ashraf were given chances but they couldn't create that type of impact, so now we're in a building phase to see which players can fit into these positions,” he added.
Pakistan squad for New Zealand T20Is:
Shaheen Afridi (c), Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Haseebullah Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Aamer Jamal, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Mohammad Nawaz, Abrar Ahmed, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan
Pakistan tour of New Zealand:
January 12: New Zealand vs Pakistan – First T20I in Auckland
January 14: New Zealand vs Pakistan – Second T20I in Hamilton
January 17: New Zealand vs Pakistan – Third T20I in Dunedin
January 19: New Zealand vs Pakistan – Fourth T20I in Christchurch
January 21: New Zealand vs Pakistan – Fifth T20I in Christchurch
(PCB inputs)
