Pakistan Cricket Board Announces 16-Man Squad for Australia Series

The Pakistan Cricket Board has announced a 16-man squad for the five-match One Day International series against Australia, set to be played in the UAE. Pakistan talisman all-rounder Shoaib Malik will hold the captaincy reins for the side as Sarfraz Ahmed is been rested. In fact, Pakistan has rested its key players for the series.

The four uncapped players have been included as Abid Ali, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain and Saad Ali gets a place. Furthermore, the likes of Umar Akmal, Yasir Shah and Harris Sohail have been included.

Pakistan rests its key players.

Umar Akmal makes his way back into the Pakistan squad after a gap of two years. The talented batsman had last played in the Pakistan colours in an ODI in January 2017 at Adelaide Oval. In fact, Akmal is in good form in the ongoing Pakistan Super League as he has scored 228 runs in eight innings. Thus, he would like to grab his chance for the national side.

“I am happy that we have been able to develop a strong bench-strength which helps us to make eight changes from the previous series,” said Pakistan chairman of selectors Inzamam-ul-Haq.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s veteran batsman Mohammed Hafeez is still recuperating from the thumb injury.

Pakistan will like to hit the straps.

“The changes have been made taking into consideration the player workload in the build up to the World Cup, which starts 30 May. Apart from five ODIs against Australia, we have three warm-up games followed by five ODIs against England, and then two World Cup warm-up matches followed by, at least, nine games. This is too much cricket in a short period of time. Had there been no pre-World Cup matches in England, then we would not have made these many changes.”

The first ODI between Pakistan and Australia will take place on 22nd March at Sharjah. In fact, this would be the last bilateral series for both teams before the World Cup. Australia has also announced their squad and they haven’t included Steven Smith and David Warner.

Squad: Shoaib Malik (c), Abid Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Sohail, Imad Wasim, Imam-ul-Haq, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saad Ali, Shan Masood, Umar Akmal, Usman Shinwari, Yasir Shah.