Pakistan have dropped former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed as they name their 22-man squad for the upcoming limited-overs series against Zimbabwe. Along with Sarfaraz, the selectors have left out Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Amir too.
The trio was a part of the recently concluded England series. Sarfaraz Ahmed was making a comeback after being sacked as the skipper on the back of a poor World Cup. However, he played just one game in the entire tour and didn’t bat in the only T20I he featured.
Sarfaraz Ahmed dropped as Pakistan announce squad
On the other hand, Shoib Malik played only one T20I and scored just 14. Amir had a tour to forget too as he went wicketless in the two games that he played. Speaking on the selection, Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haq said that he’s kept “performance as the only criterion for selection”.
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Meanwhile, Pakistan have picked 20-year-old Rohail Nazir following his consistent show in National T20 Cup. He scored 358 runs with a strike-rate of over 133 and even scored a hundred on his T20 debut, becoming only the second player in history to make a century on both his first-class and T20 debuts.
“With an eye on future and as part of the succession plan, Rohail Nazir has been chosen as Rizwan’s back-up wicketkeeper. Instead of Sarfaraz sitting on the substitute bench, it makes sense that he plays in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy so that he retains his fitness and rediscovers form for the tour for the longer and more demanding tour of New Zealand,” Misbah said.
Pakistan play three ODIs against Zimbabwe starting October 30 before moving to Lahore for the three T20Is.
Pakistan full squad for Zimbabwe series:
Abdullah Shafiq, Abid Ali, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Sohail, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imam-ul-Haq, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Rizwan, Rohail Nazir, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Usman Qadir, Zafar Gohar, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Musa Khan, Shaheen Shah, Wahab Riaz
