The Shaheens will lock horns with Sri Lanka for three ODIs starting November 11.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced the squads for their three-match ODI series against Asian counterparts Sri Lanka, and also the T20I tr-series that the teams will be playing with Zimbabwe chipping in as the third country. However, Hasan Nawaz was dropped from the PAK vs SL ODI squad. Furthermore, his name did not appear in the T20I squad for the tri-series as well.
The Shaheens are scheduled to take on Sri Lanka for a three-match ODI series starting November 11. The three 50-over games will be played in Rawalpindi on November 11, 13 and 15 respectively. Post the three-match ODI series, the two teams will lock horns with Zimbabwe in a tri-series starting from November 17 onwards.
Interestingly, the tri-series will mark the first-ever multi-team T20I tournament to be played on Pakistan soil. Having said that, the exclusion of Hasan Nawaz from the Pakistan squad will be a big miss for the Shaheens. Though his performances in the recent past have not invoked a lot of promise, Nawaz remains to be one of the key players for the Men in Green.
The 23-year-old was sent to play the ongoing Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. No replacement was announced for Hasan Nawaz in the PAK vs SL ODI squad, whereas Fakhar Zaman has been called to the T20I side for the tri-series as his replacement. It will have to be seen whether the management and selectors are looking to launch Nawaz into the longest format in the recent future.
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It was not a long ago that T20I skipper Salman Ali Agha spoke about his role as skipper. He mentioned that it would be a failure for him if he is unable to convert Hasan Nawaz, Saim Ayub and Mohammad Haris into match-winners. He also expressed that it was his prime responsibility as a skipper to build players who can go on to win matches for the team from any situation.
However, this announcement of the PAK vs SL ODI squad will leave a bitter taste in the mouth for all the fans. Hasan Nawaz burst onto the scene beautifully when he scored a scintillating ton against New Zealand in March 2025. His explosive hitting ability was widely regarded as one of the best and he was labelled as ‘one for the future.’ On top of that, the right-handed batter was back to the hilt despite having five ducks in his first 10 innings.
However, his recent performances have been on the edge. The youngster was not included for most of Pakistan’s run towards the Asia Cup 2025 Final, and was replaced by Hussain Talat. The latter’s game awareness has been questionabble for most of his career. To add to that, Talat is a much lesser known hitter of the cricket ball than Nawaz.
Nawaz has featured in just four ODIs for Pakistan and the exclusion from the PAK vs SL ODI squad will not sit well with the youngster. On the other hand, in 25 ODIs so far, he has scored 457. Though his average is not heroic for a batter in the T20I format, his strike-rate is where he makes headlines. Nawaz plays with a strike rate of 154.39 and has notched up two fifties and a ton so far. As far as the team is concerned, he would be dearly missed from the PAK vs SL ODI squad and also the T20I squad for the tri-series.
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