adminPAKISTAN selectors yesterday included two uncapped young players Aamir Yamin and Imran Khan (Junior) in the national T20 squad for the tour of Zimbabwe. The national selection committee headed by Haroon Rasheed announced the T20 and ODI squads for the Zimbabwe tour as well as the Test squad for the forthcoming series against England in the UAE with the first Test starting from October 13 in Abu Dhabi.
The selectors made some changes to the limited-overs squads for the Zimbabwe tour, which takes place from the last week of September.
Left-arm pacer Imran, who bagged 16 wickets in the national T20 championship for champions Peshawar, has been rewarded for his form while young all-rounder Yamin has also been picked.
Much like Bangladesh’’s Mustafizur Rahman, Imran caused a lot of problems for all teams in the event with his variation and off-cutters.
“We have made it a point to duly reward those players who have done well in domestic cricket as we intend to build up the talent base for Pakistan cricket,” Rasheed said.
Wicket-keeper Sarfaraz Ahmed will miss the two T20 matches in Zimbabwe as he is going to perform Haj with Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq.
Sarfaraz, Asad and Azhar have been picked for the three ODIs on their insistence that they wanted to play despite the hectic schedule between the holy pilgrimage and the matches.
Azhar will captain the side in Zimbabwe with Sarfaraz his deputy.
Batsman Sohaib Maqsood, who was out with an injury since the World Cup, also makes a come-back to the T20 and ODI squads as do left-arm pacers Muhammad Irfan and Wahab Riaz, who were out with fitness issues for the last few months.
Zimbabwe and Pakistan will play two Twenty20 matches and three ODIs starting from next Sunday and cricket captain Elton Chigumbura said they are expecting a good series. The hosts are looking to recover following losses to India and New Zealand recently.
“Obviously we know where we went wrong but this is a different game. In those matches I think we came close on some occasions but we couldn’t finish off.
“So we should learn to build on the momentum and, given a chance to win a game, we should just wrap it up. Our preparation has been good. It’s only that we need to augment the effort with good performances.
“Hopefully we will be ready physically and mentally, come Pakistan series. I believe we have been doing our best with the preparations and we just have to make sure that we use the advantage of playing at home,” said Chigumbura.
Zimbabwe named a largely unchanged squad this week Richmond Mutumbami who was selected ahead of Regis Chakabva for the wicket-keeper’s role as the only notable change.
Chakabva however, remains on standby and will be training with the squad since they do not have another experienced wicket-keeper in the fold.
Zimbabwe began a two-day team building exercise yesterday and will have a practice session on Saturday.
They will step up preparations with two T20 warm-up matches on Monday and Tuesday next week.
Pakistan T20 squad:
Muhammad Hafeez, Mukhtar Ahmed, Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Akmal, Sohaib Maqsood, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi (Capt), Aamir Yamin, Muhammad Rizwan, Bilal Asif, Wahab Riaz, Muhammad Irfan, Sohail Tanvir, Immad Wasim and Imran Khan (Jr).
Pakistan ODI squad:
Muhammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Azhar Ali (Capt), Sohaib Maqsood, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Muhammad Rizwan, Asad Shafiq, Yasir Shah, Muhammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Immad Wasim, Anwar Ali.
Zim squad:
E. Chigumbura (c), S. Raza, C. Chibhabha, C. Ervine, H. Masakadza, S. Williams, M. Waller, R. Mutumbami, G. Cremer, T. Panyangara, C. Mpofu, P. Utseya, T. Muzarabani, J. Nyumbu, L. Jongwe and N. Madziva. — Zeenews/Sports Reporter.
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