PCB announces squads for Pakistan Cup, tournament to get underway from March 2

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the squads to be featuring in one of Pakistan’s premier domestic list A tournaments, Pakistan Cup.

Just like the PSL has helped many young Pakistani cricketers showcase their skills and talent to a wide audience, another one of Pakistan’s domestic competitions, the Pakistan Cup, provides the players with a platform to endorse their case of playing for the national team at some point in the future. The tournament is all set to commence on March 2 and will be held in four different cities across Pakistan. Faisalabad, Islamabad, Lahore and Multan are the cities to be hosting the matches. The group stage games to be held in Multan will be live-streamed by the PCB.

There will be six cricket association teams to be competing in the tournament. It will be a competition that will be held on a double-league basis. The squads announced sees several younger players being given an opportunity with some of them being rewarded for their performances at the seventh edition of PSL. Each of the six squads comprises 16 members.

The defending champions, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be taking on Central Punjab at Faisalabad in their first game. The Pakhtunkhwa are to be led by Iftikhar Ahmed. While senior Test spinner, Yasir Shah is to be Balochistan’s skipper, star Pakistan all-rounder Shadab Khan will captain Northern. Test pacer Mir Hamza leads Sindh and Salman Ali Agha has been named as the captain of Southern Punjab. Raza Ali Dar rounds of the captains announced being handed the reign of Central Punjab.

Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Rizwan amongst players who will not feature

Certain notable names would not be taking part in the tournament. Pakistan’s all-format captain, Babar Azam, will be busy with national commitments as Pakistan takes on Australia in a three-match Test series and thus will not feature. Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan, Hasan Ali and Azhar Ali are some of the other big names that will be on national duty during the duration of the domestic tournament. The Pakistan cup will be the last competition in the 2021-22 domestic season.

Pakistan Cup Squads

Balochistan

Yasir Shah (Captain), Abdul Wahid Bangalzai, Akif Javed, Ammad Butt, Asad Shafiq, Ayaz Tasawar, Azeem Ghumman, Bismillah Khan (WK), Haseebullah Khan (WK), Imran Butt, Jalat Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Saad, Mohammad Shahid and Taj Wali

Central Punjab

Raza Ali Dar (Captain), Ahmed Shahzad, Awais Ali, Hussain Talat, Imran Dogar, Muhammad Akhlaq, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Irfan Jnr., Nisar Ahmed, Qasim Akram, Rizwan Hussain, Saad Nasim, Umar Akmal, Usman Qadir, Wahab Riaz and Zafar Gohar

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Iftikhar Ahmed (Captain), Aamer Azmat, Adil Amin, Arshad Iqbal, Asif Afridi, Fakhar Zaman, Imran Khan Jnr., Imran Khan Snr, Irfanullah Shah, Khalid Usman, Mohammad Haris (WK), Mohammad Sarwar, Sahibzada Farhan, Sameen Gul, Waqar Ahmed and Wasim Jnr

Northern

Shadab Khan (Captain), Aamir Jamal, Ali Imran, Asif Ali, Ather Mehmood, Haider Ali, Imad Wasim, Mehran Mumtaz, Mubasir Khan, Mohammad Huraira, Musa Khan, Nasir Nawaz, Rohail Nazir (WK), Salman Irshad, Umar Amin and Zaman Khan

Sindh

Mir Hamza (Captain), Omair Bin Yousaf, Abrar Ahmed, Ahsan Ali, Ammad Alam, Asif Mehmood, Danish Aziz, Khurram Manzoor, Mohammad Asghar, Mohammad Hasan (WK), Mohammad Taha, Mohammad Umar, Saad Khan, Shahnawaz Dahani, Sharjeel Khan and Sohail Khan

Southern Punjab

Salman Ali Agha (Captain), Aamir Yamin, Abbas Afridi, Ali Majid, Azam Khan (WK), Faisal Akram, Hassan Khan, Imran Randhawa, Khushdil Shah, Rahat Ali, Sharoon Siraj, Sohaib Maqsood, Tayyab Tahir, Zain Abbas, Zeeshan Ashraf (WK) and Zia-ul-Haq