The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will announce its squad for the upcoming tri-series with New Zealand and South Africa today and the ICC Champions Trophy today (January 31). The preparatory series will start on February 8 and will be played in Karachi and Lahore, the venues which will also hosted matches for the 8-team tournament which starts on February 19.
Delay in squad announcement
The hosts are the only country left that hasn’t named its squad for the ICC Champions Trophy. Pakistan would have revealed its 15-member side earlier in the month; however, due to an unfortunate injury to Saim Ayub, PCB had to delay the announcement. Of course, they also have to name their team for the upcoming tri-series.
As mentioned above, Saim has been out with an injury since January 3. He didn’t need to undergo surgery but has been undergoing rehabilitation in London. PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi has been keeping a keen eye on his situation, but nothing has come about Saim’s fitness or whether he’ll be available for selection.
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Pakistan’s squad for Champions Trophy to be out today
Naqvi confirmed in a press conference at the Gaddafi Stadium that the squad will be out today. The Men in Green’s squad for the ICC Champions Trophy will be the same as the tri-series. There are question marks over Saim Ayub. Naqvi stated that the opener has had his cast removed, but it’ll still take him around 3-4 weeks to completely recover. If he doesn’t get back to full fitness, Khushdil Shah will likely replace him.
Pakistan’s predicted squad for Tri-series and ICC Champions Trophy
Mohammad Rizwan (c & wk), Babar Azam, Saim Ayub (fitness permitting), Fakhar Zaman, Irfan Khan, Tayyab Tahir, Kamran Ghulam, Salman Ali Agha (vc), Haseebullah Khan (wk) Aamer Jamal, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed, Sufiyan Muqeem
Traveling reserves: Mohammad Hasnain, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammed Wasim Jr.