Pakistan announce 20-member squad for South Africa T20Is; Hafeez and Wahab Riaz miss out

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the 20-member squad for the upcoming three-match T20I series against South Africa. The two teams are currently in the middle of a two-match Test series and then will feature in the T20I series starting from February 11.

The chief selector Muhammad Wasim held a press conference in Lahore to announce the T20I squad filled with a lot of surprises. Mohammad Hafeez, Imad Wasim, Wahab Riaz, and Shadab Khan are the notable absentees from the squad. Wasim, however, explained the reasons for not including these players while stating that the veteran Hafeez is unavailable due to his participation in the ongoing T10 League in Abu Dhabi.

Interestingly though the T10 League is set to end on February 6 while the T20I series between Pakistan and South Africa will only commence five days later. As for the other three players are concerned, Imad Wasim has a family issue while Wahab Riaz has been dropped and Shadab who led Pakistan in New Zealand T20Is is once again injured.

Among others, Fakhar Zaman has also been left out which is a surprising move. The southpaw was not able to travel to New Zealand due to his illness and now hasn’t been considered it seems.

Domestic stalwarts make it to the T20I squad

However, the domestic performers have been provided with an opportunity to step up for this home series. The likes of Zafar Gohar, Amad Butt, Zahid Mehmood and Danish Aziz have been named in the squad. Even Asif Ali and Aamer Yameen have made their comeback in the side having last played for Pakistan long back.

Hasan Ali is set to make his comeback in the shortest format as well despite not so great show in the first Test against Proteas. Mohammad Rizwan continues to be the preferred wicket-keeper in the squad while Sarfaraz Ahmed has also been retained along with Shaheen Afridi, Haider Ali, Hussain Talat among others. Babar Azam, the skipper, will be itching to perform after missing out in New Zealand due to injury.

Pakistan T20I squad for South Africa T20Is: Babar Azam, Haider Ali, Khushdil Shah, Hussain Talat, Danish Aziz, Asif Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Zafar Gohar, Faheem Ashraf, Aamer Yamin, Amad Butt, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Hasan Ali, Usman Qadir, Zahid Mehmood