Pakistan has announced the teams that will play in the ODI and T20I series against New Zealand.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) named on Tuesday the teams that will play against New Zealand in the one-day international (ODI) and Twenty20 international (T20I) series.
Shaheen Shah Afridi will play international cricket for the first time in four months. He was named to the Pakistan team for the series against New Zealand, which will take place from April 14 to May 7 in Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Karachi.
Shaheen missed five Tests and three ODIs against England and New Zealand after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 because he was still recovering from a knee injury he got in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle in July.
After that, he missed the second Test against Sri Lanka, an ODI series against the Netherlands, the ACC Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates, and a seven-match T20I series in Pakistan.
The 22-year-old has taken 99 wickets in Tests, 62 in ODIs, and 58 in T20Is. In the eighth season of the Pakistan Super League, he helped Lahore Qalandars become the first team to successfully protect their title.
Shaheen did a great job with both the bat and the ball. He made 133 runs at a strike rate of 168.35 and took 19 wickets at an economy rate of 9.13. He was named leader of the HBL PSL 8 team for good reason.
Shaheen isn’t the only one who is coming back to both teams. Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, and Mohammad Rizwan are all coming back as well. All of these players got some rest before the three T20Is against Afghanistan in Sharjah last month.
This means that Babar Azam will go back to being captain for the ODI and T20I series against New Zealand, and Shadab will go back to being vice-captain as he was before.
After great efforts in Sharjah, Ihsanullah, Saim Ayub, and Zaman Khan were kept on the T20I squad. Ihsanullah was also added to the ODI squad for the first time in his career.
On April 6, the team will meet up in Lahore, and on April 7, the training camp will start.
Squads T20I: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Ihsanullah, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Maso
ODI: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Haris Sohail, Ihsanullah, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood and Usama Mir. Abbas Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, and Tayyab Tahir are all in the reserves.
The T20Is will start at 9pm, and the ODIs will start at 3.30pm.
14 April: 1st T20I, Lahore
2nd T20I, April 15, Lahore
3rd T20I, April 17, Lahore
4th T20I, April 20, Rawalpindi
24 April: 5th T20I, Rawalpindi
27 April: 1st ODI, Rawalpindi
29 Apr – 2nd ODI, Rawalpindi
3 May: Third ODI, Karachi
Karachi, 5 May, 4th ODI
5th ODI, May 7, Karachi