Pakistan drop Babar and Rizwan for New Zealand tour
By Shreyasi Talukdar in 4 hours
Pakistan have taken a drastic step and dropped Mohammed Rizwan and Babar Azam for Pakistan’s T20I series against New Zealand. However, the ODI squad of the same tour does not include such major changes.
Pakistan bring changes to T20 squad
According to a Pakistan Cricket Board statement, they chose Salman Ali Agha and Shadab Khan as the captain and vice-captain of the T20I squad for New Zealand tour respectively keeping the future in mind. The Men’s T20 Asia Cup 2025 is scheduled to take place in September this year whereas the Men’s T20 World Cup will be held next year. Keeping these upcoming major tournaments in mind, the PCB decided to make these changes in the T20I squad.
The T20I squad for New Zealand tour has some new faces including Abdul Samad, Hassan Nawaz and Mohammad Ali, who are all yet to play T20Is for Pakistan. Samad scored 115 runs at a strike rate above 166 in the Champions Cup whereas Nawaz was the second highest run-getter with 313 runs at a strike rate of 142.47. Shadab Khan, the newly appointed vice-captain has not played a T20I since the Men’s T20 world Cup in the West Indies and USA. It is evident that the Pakistan cricket is trying to get the right combination in the T20Is.
Meanwhile, Pakistan retained Rizwan as their ODI captain for the same tour. Despite being out of the Champions Trophy from the group stage, Pakistan did not make many changes to the 50-overs squad. Pakistan will play five T20Is followed by three ODIs in New Zealand from March 16. The ODIs will be played on March 29, April 2, and April 5.
T20 squad: Hassan Nawaz, Omair Yousuf, Mohammad Haris Abdul Samad, Salman Ali Agha (c), Irfan Niazi, Khushdil Shah, Shadab Khan Abbas Afridi, Jahandad Khan, Mohammad Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Sufiyaan Muqeem, Abrar Ahmed, Usman Khan.
ODI squad: Mohammad Rizwan (c), Salman Ali Agha, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Akif Javed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Imam-ul-Haq, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Irfan Niazi, Naseem Shah, Sufiyan Muqeem, Tayyab Tahir.
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