Sharjeel, Sami named in Asia Cup, WT20 squad

KARACHI: Pakistan selectors on Monday named opener Sharjeel Khan and pacer Mohammad Sami to replace Babar Azam and Ruman Raees, respectively, for Asia Cup and World Twenty20.

At the same time, they announced that Khalid Latif would replace Iftikhar Ahmed for World T20.

The PCB said Babar and Ruman had sustained injuries and were not available for both the events. Babar got a fracture when he was hit on his left forearm in a practice session during PSL and after CT scan it was revealed that he has a fracture in his forearm and as per Doctors report would be out of cricket for three to four weeks, the PCB said.

Ruman suffered a grade 1 hamstring strain and would take some time to recover completely before he starts bowling in the nets, added the board.

After having looked at the performance of the players in the PSL competition, the selection committee, along with Captain Shahid Afridi and Head Coach Waqar Younis, came to the conclusion that Sharjeel and Sami should be included as replacements for injured Babar and Ruman, said the PCB statement.

It said Khalid would replace Iftikhar as he showed tremendous power-hitting ability in the PSL matches.

“Khalid Latif could not be made part of the Asia Cup squad due to some technical reasons but would join the squad for the World Cup,” said chief selector Haroon Rashid.

The participating teams of the World Twenty20 championship can make last-minute changes to their squad till the March 8 deadline.

Sharjeel, a left-handed opener from Hyderabad whose last appearance for Pakistan was in August 2014, got the selectors thinking with a blistering 117 runs off 62 balls in the Pakistan Super League eliminator against favourites Peshawar Zalmi.

Sharjeel, who has played 11 ODIs and three T20 Internationals, savaged the Peshawar attack led by national T20 captain Shahid Afridi to guide Islamabad United to a surprise spot in the final.

Afridi, clearly impressed by Sharjeel’s knock, said at the post-match ceremony that the match belonged to the batsman. “The day belongs to Sharjeel and he will get his reward,” Afridi said after Sunday night’s match.

Pacer Sami has also been in top form for Islamabad, taking 5-8 in the playoffs against Karachi Kings.

Haroon and Afridi had already said that since the ICC has allowed teams in the main round of the World T20 to make changes within the March 8 deadline, there could be changes based on performances of players in the Asia Cup being held in Bangladesh from February 24.

Sharjeel has so far scored 287 runs in the PSL with a batting average of 31.88 and a strike rate of 151.05.

Pakistan meet old rivals India in their opening match of the T20 Asia Cup at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Saturday.

Pakistan are scheduled to fly to Dhaka from Dubai tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.

The players who will be featuring in the PSL final between Quetta Gladiators and Islamabad United will join their team-mates at the Dubai airport.

The selectors had dropped the seasoned Ahmed Shehzad for the two tournaments and instead recalled Test opener Khurrum Manzoor, who didn’t feature in the PSL since no franchise picked him for the event.—Originally published in The News