Pakistan Squads Announced For Tour Of South Africa And Zimbabwe; Sharjeel Khan Returns Following A 4-Year Ban For Spot-Fixing

Left-handed opener Sharjeel Khan has returned to the Pakistan T20I squad after 4 years as PCB announces squads of all three formats to tour South Africa and Zimbabwe. Sharjeel Khan was banned in 2017 for his involvement in a spot-fixing scandal in the PSL.

Initially, he was banned from all cricket for 5 years; later on subsequent appeals, the ban was reduced to a suspension. The left-hander recently smashed a century in the PSL for the Karachi Kings – opening alongside Pakistan’s skipper Babar Azam would have helped his cause.

The Men In Green will compete with South Africa from April 2nd in a 3-match ODI series followed by 4 T20Is. Babar Azam’s side will take on Zimbabwe in a T20I and a Test series, the dates which have not been confirmed yet.

There are plenty of changes in the limited-overs squads. Other than Sharjeel. Mohammad Hafeez returns to the side after being dropped for the home T20I series against the Proteas; Shadab Khan has recovered from his injury but will only feature in the T20Is.

While former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed makes a comeback to the ODI team, pacer Wahab Riaz is dropped. Pakistan will miss the services of Yasir Shah from the Test side as he is in rehab to recover from his injury.

Pakistan’s squad for the South African and Zimbabwe tour

Test squad: Babar Azam (capt), Imran Butt, Abid Ali, Abdullah Shafique, Azhar Ali, Fawad Alam, Saud Shakeel, Agha Salman, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Tabish Khan, Hasan Ali, Shahnawaz Dhani, Nauman Ali, Zahid Mahmood, Sajid Khan.

ODI squad: Babar Azam (capt), Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Haider Ali, Danish Aziz, Saud Shakeel, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Usman Qadir, Hasan Ali.

T20I squad: Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Haider Ali, Danish Aziz, Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Usman Qadir, Hasan Ali, Arshad Iqbal.

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