Pakistan have decided to rest as many as six players – from the squad which faced South Africa – for their five-match ODI series against Australia in UAE, starting from March 22nd.
Christiaan Kotze / AFP
The decision has been taken with regard to the upcoming World Cup in June; and that has given four young players their first-ever cap for the country. The list of players who have been rested for the series include their captain Sarfaraz Ahmed followed by the likes of Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Hasan Ali, Shadab Khan and Shaheen Shah Afridi. Hussain Talat, on the other hand, has been dropped.
Covering places for the rested players are four uncapped youngsters in Abid Ali, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain and Saad Ali, followed by the experienced campaigners in Haris Sohail, Junaid Khan and Yasir Shah.
Meanwhile, Shoaib Malik will lead the side in Sarfaraz's absence.
"I am pleased that we have been able to develop a strong bench-strength that has helped us to make eight changes from the previous series," said Pakistan chairman of selectors Inzamam-ul-Haq. "This is a good sign for Pakistan cricket as we now have a big pool of players who have the capability, talent and potential, and are raring to step up and seize the opportunity when thrown at the deep end.
"The changes have been made taking into consideration the player workload in the build up to the World Cup, which starts 30 May. Apart from five ODIs against Australia, we have three warm-up games followed by five ODIs against England, and then two World Cup warm-up matches followed by, at least, nine games. This is too much cricket in a short period of time. Had there been no pre-World Cup matches in England, then we would not have made these many changes."
It was earlier today that Australia had announced their unchanged (from the India series) squad for the UAE tour. The talking point though remained that both David Warner and Steve Smith were left out despite being eligible for the final two ODIs.
Pakistan Squad: Shoaib Malik (c), Abid Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Sohail, Imad Wasim, Imam-ul-Haq, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saad Ali, Shan Masood, Umar Akmal, Usman Shinwari, Yasir Shah.
