LAHORE: The Pakistan cricket board declared on Saturday that the team would employ an all-pace attack in the opening game of their next two-match Test series against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi.
The hosts’ playing lineup for the Wednesday match is still being finalized, but it shows that they want to make the most of their pace attack, which is led by Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
For the series, the home team had selected a 17-man roster, with Abrar Ahmed being the only specialist spinner.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said that the leg-break bowler who was previously unknown has been removed from the team, along with batsman Kamran Ghulam.
However, both will play in Shaheens’ second and final four-day match against Bangladesh ‘A,’ which is slated to begin on Tuesday, for the national developmental side.
The PCB released a statement saying, “The selectors decided to include him in the Shaheens squad rather than bench him for the Test so that he can get some match practice ahead of the second Test, which will start on 30 August.”
The left-hander Kamran, who captained the team in the opening four-day match against Bangladesh “A,” will take over as captain of the Shaheens in lieu of veteran Pakistan Test player Saud Shakeel.
Along with other members of the national squad who participated in the first four-day match to gather match experience for the Test series, including Naseem, Sarfraz Ahmed, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, and Saim Ayub, Saud will return to the national camp ahead of the first Test, the PCB announced.
Ali Zaryab, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Awais Anwar, Niaz Khan, Qasim Akram, Rohail Nazir, and Sharoon Siraj—some of the best players on the home circuit in recent years—have taken the places of the eight players who were departing the Shaheens squad.
Rohail, the wicketkeeper, has been chosen above Shahbaz Javed, who made 371 runs and was dismissed 26 times in the last President’s Trophy season.
Abdul Waseeh, the tournament’s highest scorer in the previous season, has also had his performance disregarded by the selectors.
Zaryab, on the other hand, has received recognition for finishing second in both the President’s Trophy and the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy with a combined total of more than 1200 runs.
Kamran Ghulam (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Ali Zaryab, Ghulam Mudassar, Imam-ul-Haq, Mehran Mumtaz, Mohammad Awais Anwar, Niaz Khan, Qasim Akram, Rohail Nazir (wicket-keeper), Saad Baig (wicket-keeper), Saad Khan, Sharoon Siraj, and Umar Amin are the Pakistan Shaheens squad for their second four-day encounter.
