Picture Credit: Twitter
With hardly a day to go for the start of the T20I series between Pakistan and Bangladesh, the Men in Green have announced their 12-member team for the first game which is slated to take place in Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka. Babar Azam will lead the side while Shadab Khan will be his deputy. The three-match T20I series will kick off on Friday with all its matches starting at 1:30 PM IST.
It is worth noting that the likes of Iftikhar Ahmed, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Usman Qadir, who were included in Pakistan's 18-member squad announced earlier for the shortest format games against Bangladesh, failed to make a cut into the truncated 12-member team.
Here is the 12-member Pakistan squad:
Babar Azam (Captain), Shadab Khan (Vice Captain), Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Wasim Jr, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shoaib Malik
New look team for Bangladesh in T20Is against Pakistan
This announcement from the visitors comes a day after the hosting team also released the name of their 16 players who will be in contention for the playing XI in the T20I series against Pakistan. Notably, the team of Bangladesh looks more like a new side as some prominent names from the team would be missing the crucial series against the Men in Green. Star all-rounder and key player of the side, Shakib Al Hasan, misses the series due to hamstring injury he picked in the recently-concluded T20 World Cup. On the other hand, Mohammad Saifuddin and Tamim Iqbal are too not a part of the series due to their respective injuries. While Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar and Rubel Hossain have been dropped, Mushfiqur Rahim has been rested.
Bangladesh squad for Pakistan T20Is: Mahmudullah (captain), Naim Sheikh, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Shak Mahedi Hasan, Aminul Islam Biplob, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Shamim Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Saif Hassan, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Shohidul Islam, Akbar Ali
The second and third games of the T20I series will take place on November 19 and 20. However, the venue of all the three games is same that is the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka.