Pakistan captain Babar Azam has had to do a lot of thinking over various stuff in recent times. While his Test team has succumbed to losses and scrapping draws – he’d claim differently though about the latter – Azam has also had to see former PCB chairman Ramiz Raja and his group being sacked and a new PCB boss Najam Sethi rope in former skipper Shahid Afridi as the interim chief of the selection committee.
The latest of the headaches for Babar Azam came after the Shahid Afridi-led panel announced 22 probables for the upcoming ODI series versus New Zealand with little discussion with Babar, the Pakistani captain.
After the completion of the ongoing 2-Test series against New Zealand – which stands 0-0 going into the second Test in the new year – Pakistan will host the Kiwis for 3 ODIs as they begin preparation for the 2023 ODI World Cup in India in October-November.
The PCB on Wednesday announced a list of 22 probables for the ODI squad – rarely any board in the world announces probables for bilateral series; it’s PCB, though, where anything can happen and it’s not even a surprise anymore – to face New Zealand, and 16 of which will be named in the final squad.
In this probables list, opener Sharjeel Khan and Shan Masood have made a comeback while there are also 6 uncapped players. Fakhar Zaman, Khushdil Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi (injured) and Zahid Mehmood, who were part of the squad for the ODI series against the Netherlands, have not been named in the probables list.
As per the recent reports in the website cricketpakistan.com , Babar Azam is unhappy with the squad named, and the skipper also made his disappointment clear to head coach Saqlain Mushtaq.
It is believed that Babar didn’t have enough say in the selection/axing of players under this new Shahid Afridi-led committee as he had under Ramiz Raja’s tenure.
Pakistan 22 probables for ODI squad vs New Zealand:
Babar Azam (captain), Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Aamer Jamal, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Ihsanullah, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Qasim Akram, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Shahnawaz Dahani, Shan Masood, Sharjeel Khan and Tayyab Tahir
Pakistan are in a terrific form in ODI cricket. They have only lost one series of the 6 played since October 2020.
