The senior opening pair have been sidelines for the upcoming series
Pakistan do not have a lot of regular names on their squad for the upcoming T20I series against Bangladesh.
After sweeping the Tigers 3-0 at home in May this year, Pakistan are set for a reciprocal tour of three T20Is beginning on Sunday. All three matches will be played at Mirpur with the second and third matches to be played on July 22 and 24.
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The squad led by Salman Agha doesn’t feature the big trio of Mohammed Rizwan, Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi. They also don’t have the services of Hassan Ali, Haris Rauf, Mohammed Wasim Jr and white-ball vice-captain Shadab Khan who are all out injured.
This has prompted the selectors to go with Ahmed Daniyal, Salman Mirza, Sufiyan Muqeem, Hasan Nawaz and Abbas Afridi who have impressed with their performances in the domestic competitions as well as the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
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The likes of Faheem Ashraf and Fakhar Zaman also made their return to the T20I side after a long gap.
This is the second time the T20I side has ignored Babar and Rizwan, who had served as the T20I side’s opening pair for the last few years.
The likes of Sahibzada Farhan, Hassan Nawaz and Saim Ayub have impressed with their batting in the top-order in the previous series. Ahead of the first T20I in Mirpur, Agha refused to provide an explanation for the non-selection of Babar and Rizwan and stopped at saying they have served Pakistan well.
“Babar and Rizwan are world-class. They’ve served Pakistan incredibly well. T20 cricket is evolving every six months, every year. We have players in the squad who match the style of cricket we want to play. There’s no pressure, our focus is solely on playing good cricket in this series,” Agha told reporters ahead of the series start.
Bangladesh, meanwhile, are in great form having come close to winning an ODI series in Sri Lanka, but managed to clinch their first-ever T20I series win on Lankan soil.
They had lost the two-match Test series by 1-0 after starting the series on a positive note with a draw at Galle.
