The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), on Tuesday, announced a 15-man squad that will take on England in the first Test that is set to take place in Multan from October 7 through to October 11.
Among the notable changes include the inclusion of the left-arm spinner Noman Ali who has taken 47 wickets in the 15 Tests played. He replaces the pacer Khurram Shahzad who remains sidelined due to injury.
The likes of Kamran Ghulan and Mohammad Ali who were in the squad for the Bangladesh Tests have been removed from the squad as the PCB mentioned their selection policy which is based on ‘consistency and continuity’. Despite the omission from the squad, the players have been encouraged to keep themselves ready by regularly participating in the domestic games throughout the season.
After the announcement, the head coach of the Pakistan Test team, Jason Gillespie recommended that the players picked for the national team to be removed from the Champions One-Day Cup Playoffs so that the players have enough rest ahead of the Test series.
“With a busy domestic and international cricket schedule, it makes sense to give our players some much-needed rest ahead of the Test series against England,” said the Pakistan red-ball side’s Head Coach.
“We are very much looking forward to the series against England here in Pakistan and cannot wait for it to begin. We are excited about playing in front of our wonderful supporters,” he added.
The squad are set to assemble in Multan on September 30 as their training for the England series is set to begin on October 1.
Shan Masood retains his position in the squad and will also continue leading the national side despite having a horrendous start to his captaincy. He has picked up losses in all five games he has led the national team.
Despite the poor start to leading the side, he will hope that he can bring the side together to get back to performing at the highest-level after suffering a humiliating clean-sweep defeat to Bangladesh in the recently concluded Test series that took place in Rawalpindi earlier.
Pakistan’s Squad for 1st Test vs England: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicket-keeper), and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
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