Squads for Pakistan's National One-Day Cup announced

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday, announced the schedule of the National One-Day Cup their domestic List A tournament. The 18-days domestic tournament is set to begin from January 25 and the big final will be played on 11th February.

Eight teams will participate in the 50-over tournament including Lahore Whites, Lahore Blues, Karachi Whites, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Peshawar and FATA. The matches will be played in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar, with the semis and final to be played at the Pindi Stadium, Rawalpindi from 8th to 11th February.

Pakistan national players

Meanwhile, the Pakistan team is on their tour to New Zealand which began on January 13 and will end on January 28. The players are expected to be back for a few matches at least. For example, Fakhar Zaman is named in the squad for FATA, Imad Wasim and Hasan Ali are named for Islamabad. Azhar Ali and Shadab Khan have been named for Rawalpindi.

Pakistan were whitewashed 5-0 in the ODI series after consecutive dismal performances. The T20I series is underway, there too, Pakistan’s fortunes haven’t changed so far as New Zealand lead 1-0 in the three-match series after comfortably beating Pakistan by 7 wickets in the first T20I.

With that loss, they have lost five international games in a row. They had hoped to get to the No.1 spot in the ICC T20I rankings from their current No. 2 spot but with this loss, their chances have diminished.

Pakistan have been receiving a lot of flak from the fans and former cricketers for their underwhelming performances. Moreover, they are disillusioned by senior players like skipper Sarfraz Ahmed, Shoaib Malik, Babar Azam and Mohammad Hafeez who have been below par on the tour. However, they have a silver lining in the form of Shadab Khan and Hasan Ali who have shown resistance with both the bat and the ball.

Here are the squads: