ICC World Cup 2019: Pakistan all-rounder Imad Wasim suffers injury scare ahead of the squad announcement

The ICC World Cup 2019 will commence from May 30 in England and Wales and all the teams are pretty much close to choosing their final squads for the tournament. Pakistan is considered to be one of the front runners to winning the ICC mega event. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently announced a preliminary squad which will be taking part in a camp.

The squad saw some big names like Wahab Riaz and Umar Akmal being excluded and their hopes of playing another World Cup was dashed. However, the tournament will see some young guns making their probable debut, and that includes Imad Wasim, the left-handed spinning all-rounder, who recently captained the Pakistani team against Australia.

Imad Wasim hurts his knee in practice session

Imad Wasim, who is regarded as one of the finest talents in Pakistan and one of the best all-rounders in the world. He has played 41 ODIs and 34 T20I matches since making his debut in 2015. He has taken 33 wickets in ODIs and 38 wickets in T20Is. He has 711 runs in ODIs and 169 in T20Is and will be one of the main weapons for his team in the upcoming World Cup.

Imad, along with other World Cup hopefuls were taking part in a practice session on Tuesday and according to Business Recorder, has twisted his right knee and is currently undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore.

This comes as worrying news for the Men in Green as Imad recently made rapid strides in ICC rankings 16 places to reach 68th among batsmen, climbed seven places to reach 37th in the list of bowlers and moved from 16th to joint-sixth among all-rounders. The 30-year-old scored 141 runs in five matches, which included a fifty, at an average of 70.50 against Australia recently. He also led the team in the last two matches of the series which Pakistan lost by 5-0.

Pakistan is next scheduled to play England in a series of five ODIs between May 5 and 19 and then will play two World Cup warm-up matches against Afghanistan and Bangladesh on May 24 and 26 respectively. They will kick off their World Cup campaign against the West Indies in Nottingham on May 31.

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