PCB announces squad for South Africa tour

Injured Irfan out, Bhatti only new face in 17-man squad while Razzaq, Malik brought back

KARACHI: Pakistan team received a major setback for their away tour of South Africa as lanky pacer Mohammad Irfan was ruled out due to an injury.

The national selection committee brought back the trio of Shoaib Malik, Abdur Razzaq and Anwar Ali for the three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 series.

The selectors also overlooked the team management’s request of inducting senior player Younus Khan as they decided not to press the panic button and keep faith in youngsters like Umar Amin and Asad Shafiq, in order to build the team for the future.

Wahab Riaz and wicket-keeper Sarfaraz Ahmed were the casualties from the 17-man squad. The management also decided to stick with out-of-form opener Nasir Jamshed despite selectors pressing for the inclusion of opener Sharjeel Khan, who had been a prolific run-scorer at domestic level and recently played a 194-run knock in the domestic one-day tournament for ZTBL.

Short-heighted pacer Bilawal Bhatti of SNGPL is the only new face to be inducted into the national team. Bhatti has experience of playing in South Africa as he represented Sialkot Stallions in last year’s Champions League qualifiers where he was one of the shining lights along with Haris Sohail.

The squad includes Misbahul Haq (Captain ODI), Mohammad Hafeez (Captain T20), Ahmad Shehzad, Umar Akmal (wk), Umar Amin, Shahid Afridi, Abdur Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Sohaib Maqsood, Sohail Tanvir, Anwar Ali, Junaid Khan, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Nasir Jamshed, Asad Shafiq and Bilawal Bhatti.