A 16 player squad announced for the ODI series

The squad for the upcoming three match ODI series between New Zealand and Pakistan has been announced today. Shahid Afridi,  the interim chief selector announced the squad in a press conference today. Opener Fakhar Zaman has been added to the squad, while uncapped player Tayyab Tahir gets his maiden call.

All rounder Shahab Khan has been excluded from the squad owing to an injury and Usama Mir has been added in the group as his replacement. Shahid Afridi told the media, “I spoke to Shadab this morning, he wasn’t feeling comfortable due to finger injury, that’s why he is not selected for the series against New Zealand.”

He also said that the squad has been finalized after consulting the team management. “We asked Babar (captain) and Saqlain (head coach) to give their choice of 16 before finalising this squad.”

Regarding the selection of the players, the former skipper said, “Our mandate was to announce squads for the New Zealand series only but we have made our choices keeping the future in our mind. We have also given importance to performances in domestic cricket.”

To strengthen the middle order batsmen Haris Sohail and Shan Masood have been included. For the bowling side, pacer Haris Rauf who gotten injured during the Pakistan and England Test series is now back in form while Shaheen Shah Afridi has still not been given the green signal despite made good progress in his recovery.

The complete ODI squad:  Babar Azam (captain), Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Salman Ali Agha, Shahnawaz Dahani, Shan Masood, Tayyab Tahir and Usama Mir.

The three ODI matches between Pakistan and New Zealand will be played on Jan 11, Jan 13 and Jan 15 in Karachi.