Veterans Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Amir have been left out of Pakistan’s limited-overs squad of 22 for the home series against Zimbabwe next month. Abdullah Shafique, the uncapped 20-year old, top order batsman has found a place following strong performances for Central Punjab in the recently-concluded National T20 Cup.
Shafique, who hails from Sialkot, made a stunning century on T20 debut to help Central Punjab pull off a remarkable chase of 201. He finished the tournament with 358 runs in 10 innings, striking them at 133 with an average of 44.75. These include two half-centuries and a century. Shafique has also made a century in his only first-class appearance so far, making him the first Pakistani and second in cricket history to manage debut hundreds at both the first-class and T20 cricket.
Although the squad has been named for the full tour, the team management and the Pakistan selectors will pick a squad for the ODIs and T20Is from this pool at a later date. A big pool has been picked to ensure all players can comply with strict covid-19 protocols in a bio-secure bubble that will be in place for the full series.
Full squad: Babar Azam, Haider Ali, Abdullah Shafique, Imam ul Haq, Harris Sohail, Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Rizwan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Imad Wasim, Rohail Nazir, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Haris Rauf, Musa Khan, Wahab Riaz, Usman Qadar, Zafar Gohar.
More to follow
Source: ESPN Crickinfo