Pakistan has dismissed all speculations claiming it will pull out of the ICC T20 World Cup and announced its squad for the upcoming marquee event. Once again some very big names have been boldly left out by Mike Hesson.
Amidst all the speculation against Pakistan, PCB has revealed the ICC T20 World Cup squad, in which Salman Ali Aga will remain the captain of the T20 team. Pakistan has made several changes in its team, which includes the exclusion of fast bowlers Mohammad Wasim and Haris Rauf.
The last time Pakistan played the ICC T20 World Cup was in 2024 and it failed to even progress to the Super-8 stage after being humiliated by India and the US in the group-stage games. Salman Ali Aga and Mike Hesson would definitely like to rewrite Pakistan’s fortunes this time.
Pakistan team announced for T20 World Cup
Salman Ali Aga will lead the side for the first time in the World Cup after achieving significant success in the Asia Cup, where his team finished runners-up despite losing all the games against India in the competition.
Despite poor performance in the first season of Big Bash League, star batsman Babar Azam has returned to the team. Shaheen Afridi has also been included in the team and it is expected that he will make a comeback from his injury by then. In the absence of Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah will captain the new ball of Pakistan along with Afridi.
Pakistan squad: Salman Ali Aga (C), Babar Azam, Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Khawaja Mohammad Nafe, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan (wk), Saeem Ayub, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Usman Khan (wk) and Usman Tariq.
Pakistan will play ICC competition without Haris Rauf for the first time since his debut
Haris Rauf made his debut for Pakistan against Bangladesh in Lahore in 2020. Since then, Pakistan has played in three T20 World Cups, one ODI World Cup and one Champions Trophy in ICC tournaments, and Haris Rauf was a regular in all the tournaments.
The 32-year-old Pakistan fast bowler has some promising stats for the Men in Green. He has taken 97 ODI wickets in 54 matches and has also taken 133 T20I wickets in 94 matches. He is the highest wicket-taker for Pakistan in the shortest format of the game.
However, Harris has been dropped from the format ahead of the marquee tournament due to his poor economy rate. Rauf’s
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Many more to follow…
