Pakistan decide their preliminary squad for series against New Zealand and Zimbabwe

Pakistan’s cricket team is done with finalizing their preliminary squad for their series against Zimbabwe and New Zealand. However, the official announcement on the same thing will be made in the next week of October.

The squads of two teams, that are Pakistan and New Zealand, will be made public around the same time so that COVID-19 SOP’s are followed properly. In the same manner, the travel of New Zealand would also be made easier.

Misbah-ul-Haq, the head coach cum chief selector of Pakistan, held a meeting with other provincial team coaches to come up with preliminary squads. As per sources, there was a consensus among management while including youngsters in the team. The likes of Abdullah Shafiq, Zeeshan Ashraf, and Zeeshan Malik have been added to the 36-member squad.

All the three young talents have displayed some brilliant performances in Pakistan’s ongoing T20 Cup in Multan. They all have shown some laudable form in the domestic circuit also and. Spinner Usman Qadir is also expected to lend in their squad after he missed out on England tour. Misbah already made it clear earlier that in upcoming series against Zimbabwe, the young talents will be given preference over senior players.

Pakistan A renamed as Pakistan Shaheen team

However, no major changes will be made to the squad in playing against New Zealand. Zimbabwe will play the three ODIs in Multan while three T20s will set the action in Rawalpindi, which will commence on October 30. In the context of the New Zealand tour, the senior men’s team will play two Tests and three T20Is against them from December 18. Also, Pakistan A will play two four-day games and six T20s.

Meanwhile, Pakistan A team has been renamed to Pakistan Shaheen team. The players selected in the senior squad are eligible to play for the junior side during the New Zealand tour.

The officials made it clear sometime before that new talents should be brought out in the team now and seniors can have some rest. In this manner, they would learn how to tackle difficult, and pressure like situations. The Zimbabwe tour is the best chance for them to carry out this experiment.