Daily Times

LAHORE: After the Pakistan Super League 7, Pakistan Cup also provides a great opportunity to young and talented cricketers to showcase their skills to get a chance to represent Pakistan in white-ball series against Australia. Pakistan Cup is all set to commence from March 2 in four cities – Faisalabad, Islamabad, Lahore and Multan. Besides three Tests, Pakistan are to play three ODIs and one T20I against Australia scheduled to take place at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi from 29 March.

In this context, the PCB has confirmed 16-player squads of six Cricket Associations teams for next month Pakistan Cup ––– the final tournament of the domestic season 2021-22. The squads have been finalised with the idea of providing opportunities to those young players who have given impressive performances in this year’s domestic season which include PSL 7.

The tournament will be held on a double-league basis from March 2 and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa led by Iftikhar Ahmed will look to defend the title when they take on Raza Ali Dar led Central Punjab at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad. Test leg-spinner Yasir Shah will lead Balochistan, while another leg-spinner and all-rounder Shadab Khan will lead Northern. Test fast bowler Mir Hamza will lead Sindh which will meet Salman Ali Agha’s Southern Punjab on the opening day at the Multan Cricket Stadium.

The PCB will live stream group stage matches scheduled at the Multan Cricket Stadium. The decision to broadcast semi-finals and final at the Multan Cricket Stadium will be taken in due course. The tournament carries nearly PKR10million in prize money. The tournament winners will bag PKR5million, while the runners-up will receive PKR2.5million.

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.