Pak vs WI: PCB announces 16-member ODI squad against WI

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced the 16-member one-day international squad for the home series against West Indies.

All-rounder Shadab Khan has been called back to the squad after recovering from injury. He will resume his duties as vice-captain of the Green Shirts.

Top-order batsman Abdullah Shafique and left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz were also called back.

Asif Afridi, Asif Ali, Usman Qadir, Haider Ali and Saud Shakeel did not make it to the squad. They were previously included in the 21-member squad for the home series against Australia earlier this year.

Squad members and supporting staff will assemble in Rawalpindi on June 1 to take part in the training camp.

Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Rizwan and Shadab will join the rest of the squad later in the first week of June.

The series is originally scheduled to be played in Rawalpindi. However, due to political situations in Islamabad, the PCB has kept Multan as a backup venue.

The three ODIs, scheduled to start on Jue 8, will be a part of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers.

National team chief selector Mohammad Wasim said that the team will do their best to accumulate maximum points so they can directly qualify for the main event scheduled next year.

“As the ODIs against the West Indies are part of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 qualification, we have decided to give the best chance to our side to collect maximum points and strengthen our chances of progressing directly for the pinnacle 50-over tournament,” Wasim said in a statement.

“We have retained the same core of players [as in the series against Australia] so they further establish themselves in the format. I hope this bunch will continue the form they gained from the Australia series.”

Pakistan won the home ODI series against the Kangaroos 2-1 but lost the one-off T20I.

While talking about Usman and Haider, Wasim said that these two players have been reserved for the shortest format as there is a series of T20Is lined up along with the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.

“Players such as Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan are now fully fit, which has allowed us to leave out Asif Afridi and Usman Qadir. However, Usman along with Asif Ali and Haider Ali remains in our plans for the shortest format as we have a series of T20Is lined up this year, including the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022.”

The PCB said that the series against West Indies will go on without bio-secure bubbles. The orad further added that there was no bio-secure bubble in the home series against Australia.

Several injuries in the national squad led the board to prepare a 21-member squad.

“Taking into consideration that there will be no Managed Event Environment and the players can be called at a short notice, we have reduced the squad size to 16 players,” Wasim said. “For the Australia ODIs, we had also announced backup players as cover to those players who were carrying injuries.

Squad

Credist: Twitter/@ESPNCricinfo

Schedule

1st ODI – June 8

2nd ODI – June 10

3rd ODI – June 12