PCB announces Pakistan squad for Asia Cup 2023

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced Pakistan's squad for the upcoming Asia Cup and the three-match ODI series against Afghanistan. The new chief-selector Inzamam-ul-Haq announced the 18-member squad for the Afghanistan ODIs while 17 of them will be playing the Asia Cup. The only player to not feature in the Asia Cup is Saud Shakeel. Moreover, Faheem Ashraf has returned to the ODI side after two years while Mohammad Haris has been picked as the second wicketkeeper.

Shan Masood has been left out of the squad after being named the vice-captain in January this year. Terming his omission as unfortunate, Inzamam stated that the left-handed batter's performance has gone down in recent times and some other players performed well during this period.

"Shan has performed very well. Unfortunately, his performances have gone down. We have a list of 20-21 players, and Shan is part of that. But Saud Shakeel and a couple of other players were impressive recently, so we have to leave out Shan. But he is a part of our plans," he said in the press



conference.

Interestingly, Faheem Ashraf has also returned to the set up after playing his last ODI in July 2021. Opening up on his inclusion, Inzamam said that the team needed a fast-bowling all-rounder and hence, Ashraf has made a comeback. "Preference has been given to Faheem Ashraf, since the squad doesn't have another allrounder. If you look at PSL and other tournaments, we need an allrounder, he is a fast-bowling allrounder, which we need at the World Cup," he added.

As far as Pakistan's schedule is concerned, they will open their campaign against Nepal on August 30 in Multan while arch-rivals India will face them on September 2 and mostly on September 10 as well in the Super Fours round.

Pakistan squad for Asia Cup: Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel (only for Afghanistan ODIs), Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Tayyab Tahir, Mohammad Haris, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim