Pakistan announce preliminary squad for Champions Trophy

Pakistan has announced their preliminary squad for the champions Trophy scheduled to be played in England from June. Wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal failed to retain his place after a lacklustre performance against West Indies while the selection committee brought back former limited-overs captain Azhar Ali to the reckoning. He was removed from the limited overs captaincy pretty recently and was replaced by Sarfaraz Ahmed

Akmal was given a chance to prove his worth after consistent performance in the domestic circuit but he failed to replicate his first class performance. He had poor returns making 47, 21 and 0 in the 3 match ODI series. His brother Umar Akmal who was sidelined for the West Indies tour due to fitness issues have been recalled for the June 1-18 event.

Inzamam Ul Haq, the chief selector of PCB though clarified that it is just the preliminary squad and the final squad will be announced only after observing the current performances in the ongoing domestic tournament. In the recent past there has been constant chopping and changing in their squads as they have been totally inconsistent in all 3 departments of the game.

“We are planning to wait a few more days before announcing the final squad for the Champions Trophy as we want to observe some players’ performances in the ongoing domestic one-day cup. Aamer Yamin and a few others players are performing well in this cup and it will be unfair on them if we announced the team early. April 25 is the last day to submit the final squad to the ICC and we will announce the squad before that,” Inzamam was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune.

Preliminary squad

Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Fakhar Zaman, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Fahim Ashraf/Aamir Yamin, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan.