The Pakistani squad for the tri-nation T20 series and Asia Cup to be held in the United Arab Emirates has been announced. The tri-nation series of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UAE will be held in Sharjah from August 29 to September 7, while the Asia Cup will be held in Abu Dhabi and Dubai from September 9 to 28.
The 17-member squad was announced by selector and director of high performance Aqib Javed and head coach Mike Hesson at a press conference. Salman Ali Agha has been retained as the captain of the 17-member squad, in addition to which the squad includes Fakhar Zaman, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Saim Ayub, Khushdal Shah, Hussain Talat.
Muhammad Nawaz, Muhammad Wasim Jr., Muhammad Haris, Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Hassan Ali, Hassan Nawaz, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Mirza and Sufyan Muqim are also part of the squad.
Head coach Mike Hesson said in a press conference that we have won six out of nine matches, we lost one match on the last ball, there is not much change in our team, Salman Mirza has been retained because of his performance in Bangladesh.
Aqib Javed said that this is a similar group that is playing, hopefully these players who are playing will do well in the future as well, if T20 is to be played with a straight bat, then T20 should not be played, Saim, Sahibzada and Fakhar Zaman are playing well, no one should doubt them.
According to Aqib Javed, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were not in the three series before this. If Babar and Rizwan play like the others, they will definitely play T20Is. No one has a problem with them, but at this time we have good options.
Saim, Fakhar and Sahibzada Farhan were in the top order. It is not right to not consider a player based on two or three matches, we cannot say that we will never consider Babar and Rizwan now.
He said that now the seniors have a chance to play in the Big Bash. Those who perform well will be included in the team. The Pakistan T20 team can beat India. The India-Pakistan match is a big one. This 17-member squad can beat any team.
