Star pacer and Pakistan T20I captain Shaheen Shah Afridi attributed speed guns to his team’s lacklustre pace bowling during the recently finished Test series against Australia, stating that his team questioned whether they would be able to go above a certain threshold. In the Test series in Australia, Pakistan lost to the Australians 3-0. The slow pace of Pakistan’s bowling was one of the series’ main highlights. Despite being able to reach 145–150 kmph with ease, Pakistani bowlers, such as Shaheen, found it difficult to maintain these speeds during the series. In the two games he participated in, Shaheen took eight wickets, including a four-wicket haul.
Azam Khan, Aamer Jamal, and Sahibzada Farhan are among the new players who will get some playing time before the T20 World Cup, which begins in the USA and the West Indies on June 1. “There are new players like Haseebullah and Abbas Afridi, and some old players like Azam Khan, Aamer Jamal, and Sahibzada Farhan are returning. In these five T20Is and future T20I games leading up to the World Cup, we hope to give them an opportunity,” stated Shaheen. The captain also supported Mohammed Rizwan and Babar Azam, two of the nation’s top openers.
“For Pakistan, Babar and Rizwan will always be the ideal opening duo. We should try different lineups and see which players fit in which positions before attempting to play them [in that position] in the 17 matches we have left before the World Cup, Shaheen said. Shaheen explained that his absence from the third Test against Australia in Sydney was due to workload management, and he is fully fit. He also stated unequivocally that his top priority is the tests.
The Pakistani squad consists of the following players: Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan, Usama Mir, Mohammad Wasim Jr., Abrar Ahmed, Sahibzada Farhan, Abbas Afridi, Haseebullah Khan, Aamer Jamal, Mohammad Nawaz, and Muhammad Rizwan (w).
