Daily Times

LAHORE: Cricket selectors, headed by former Test batsman Mohammad Wasim, on Sunday dropped veteran all-rounder Muhammad Hafeez from a 20-member national squad named for a three-match Twenty20 International series against South Africa. Hafeez has been dropped as he failed to meet the Pakistan Cricket Board’s deadline for players to enter a bio-secure bubble. The PCB had said that all players had to be in the team’s bubble by February 3 ahead of the three-match series against the Proteas, which starts on February 11. Hafeez, who is not among the PCB’s centrally contracted players, is currently playing in the T10 League in the United Arab Emirates. He had asked the PCB to allow him to join the team in Lahore after the February 3 deadline. “Unfortunately, the scenario is as such that every player has to join the bio bubble on Feb 3 and if a player can’t do so, it means he is unavailable,” chief selector Wasim said. “If Hafeez was available, there’s no question on his performance, but unfortunately he is not available.” Hafeez, 40, has scored 2,323 runs in 99 Twenty20 internationals at a strike rate of 121.30 and 14 half centuries. He was the world’s leading T20 cricketer last year, scoring 415 runs in 10 matches at an average of 83 and a strike rate of 152.57.

Babar Azam will lead the squad, which also sees comebacks for pacer Hasan Ali, all-rounder Aamer Yamin and batsman Asif Ali. The outfit also includes four rookie players — Zafar Gohar, Danish Aziz, Zahid Mehmood and Amad Butt. It is pertinent to mention that Asif Ali is also playing in the T10 League in the UAE, but Wasim said the batsman would join the team by the Feb 3 deadline.

The selectors have also dropped opening batsman Fakhar Zaman and fast bowler Wahab Riaz due to their recent poor performances while all-rounder Shadab Khan is still nursing a leg injury. Pakistan’s other Twenty20 regular — all-rounder Imad Wasim — was unavailable because of a family commitment. Left-handed opener Fakhar could score only 192 runs in his last 17 Twenty20 internationals at an average of 11.29 while left-arm fast bowler Riaz took six wickets in his last 8 T20 internationals. Abdullah Shafique, who made his T20I debut in New Zealand, has also been dropped, with Wasim saying he believed Shafique was more suitable for the longer versions of the game.

The South African Twenty20 squad will arrive in Pakistan on Feb 3. All three matches will be played in Lahore on Feb 11, 13 and 14. The PCB said that Pakistan players taking part in the Test series against South Africa who are also part of the Twenty20 team will join the bubble in Lahore at the end of the second Test, which starts in Rawalpindi on Feb 4. Pakistan lead the two-match Test series 1-0 after beating South Africa by seven wickets in Karachi on Friday. Pakistan will look to arrest an alarming slide in T20 cricket that began with a series against South Africa two years ago. In February 2019, Pakistan played a three-match series against this opposition ranked number one in the world, having won a world record 11 successive T20I series. A 2-1 reverse to the South Africans broke that streak, and ever since, Pakistan have lost six of the eight series they have played in the format, with the only two wins coming against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe at home.

Squad:

Babar Azam (captain), Haider Ali, Khushdil Shah, Hussain Talat, Danish Aziz, Asif Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Zafar Gohar, Faheem Ashraf, Aamer Yamin, Amad Butt, Mohammad Rizwan, Safaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Hasan Ali, Usman Qadir, Zahid Mehmood.