LAHORE: Pakistan’s white-ball squad today (Friday) departed for South Africa through a chartered flight to play three One-Day Internationals and four Twenty20 Internationals.
All 35 members of the Pakistan national squad, including 22 players and 13 officials, have tested negative for COVID-19. On the South Africa tour, Pakistan will play three ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League matches from 2-7 April and four T20Is from 10-16 April.
The side will then depart for Harare, Zimbabwe, for three T20Is and two Tests, before returning home on 12 May. One member of the squad had tested positive for coronavirus days before the team was supposed to enter the bio-secure bubble. The Pakistan Cricket Board, however, did not identify the player who tested positive.
Following the negative tests, the team entered the bio-secure bubble last week and trained at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Meanwhile, uncapped middle-order batsman Saud Shakeel has been withdrawn from Pakistan’s ODI squad after suffering a Grade-1 quadriceps tear in left leg.
The selection committee, in consultation with the team management, has replaced Saud with Asif Ali, who is already part of the T20I squad for the series in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Squads:
T20I: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Arshad Iqbal, Asif Ali, Danish Aziz, Faheem Ashraf, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sharjeel Khan and Usman Qadir.
ODI: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abdullah Shafique, Danish Aziz, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Usman Qadir.
Test: Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Rizwan (vice-captain), Abdullah Shafique, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Imran Butt, Mohammad Nawaz, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Tabish Khan and Zahid Mahmood
