Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Wednesday announced the 35-member squad for the upcoming tour of New Zealand. Last month the New Zealand Cricket had announced the resumption of domestic cricket in the country post coronavirus pandemic.
After West Indies, the second team touring New Zealand at the end of November is Pakistan for three T20Is and two tests.
Babar Azam will lead the side in both the formats after the board appointed him the captain of the Test team yesterday. It will be his first assignment for him as the skipper of Pakistan’s Test team, part of the ICC World Test Championship.
With almost five weeks to go for the tour, PCB has named a 35-man preliminary squad with some surprising inclusions.
Batsman Fawad Alam has been named in the Test squad while Asad Shafiq hasn’t been shortlisted in the preliminary squad.
“Asad Shafiq has been left out due to lack of form after he managed 510 runs in his last 15 innings, including a total of 67 runs in England. Asad is an experienced batsman and I am sure he will utilise this time to work harder on his game in the domestic first-class matches so that he, like Sarfaraz Ahmed, can reclaim his form and be back in contention for the upcoming Tests against South Africa and Zimbabwe,” Misbah told Cricket Pakistan.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan will be the deputy to Babar Azam for the tour, following his impressive performance against England.
Pakistan’s 35-man squad:
Abid Ali, Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Zeeshan Malik, Babar Azam (C), Azhar Ali, Danish Aziz, Fawad Alam, Haider Ali, Haris Sohail, Hussain Talat, Imran Butt, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Rizwan (Test VC), Rohail Nazir, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan (T20I VC), Usman Qadir, Yasir Shah, Zafar Gohar, Amad Butt, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Musa, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Sohail Khan
