Pakistan T20I squad for the Australia series announced

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) today announced the T20I squad for the three-match series against Australia. One major change in the side is the exclusion of Mohammad Amir, instead, the selection committee decided to pick 30-year-old Waqas Maqsood who is also a left-arm medium pacer. Along with Maqsood, Sahibzada Farhan and Hussain Talat have also been named in the squad.

Maqsood impressed the selectors with his performance in domestic cricket as well as while representing Pakistan A team against New Zealand A. He picked up 5 wickets against the Kiwis in three games and was extremely economical. In his career, the Faisalabad cricketer has played 19 T20 matches and has 20 wickets to his name.

Inzi on Waqas’ selection

Talking about his inclusion, Inzamam-ul-Haq, the chief selector, said: “Waqas Maqsood has been drafted in the T20 squad after his recent performances in the domestic cricket and playing for Pakistan A team in the recent series. Similarly, Imad Wasim makes a comeback in the team after his form and fitness was monitored by the selection committee during the current domestic matches.”

Left-arm spinner Imad Wasim is back in the squad as well. He missed Pakistan’s last limited-overs assignment in the Asia Cup as he failed to hit the minimum score in the yo-yo test despite taking it twice.

Amir, on the other hand, is playing for Sui Southern Gas Corporation in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy their domestic first-class tournament. He picked up three wickets in his first match against WPDA and will want to get back his rhythm and wicket-taking touch to once again be back in the national team.

From being the lead bowler of the team Amir has really struggled of late to pick wickets in the limited-overs format. He played all the five ODIs on the tour of Zimbabwe but even against a much weaker opponent he just managed one wicket. The left-arm pacer didn’t find any success in the three Asia Cup matches he played before being dropped from the side for the last game against Bangladesh.

Pakistan Squad for the T20Is vs Australia:

Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam, Shoaib Mali, Asif Ali, Hussain Talat, Sarfraz Ahmed (C), Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Usman Shinwari, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Waqas Maqsood, Faheem Ashraf

The T20I series gets underway on October 24 in Abu Dhabi.

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