Pakistan captain Babar Azam is just not certain whether or not newly appointed deputy Shan Masood will stroll into the enjoying XI for the one-day worldwide sequence towards New Zealand.
“We can’t talk about any individual at the moment, whether he’s vice-captain or X, Y, Z,” Babar stated on Sunday on the eve of the opening match.
“We will try to field our best playing XI, and try to win the series.”
The 33-year-old left-handed batter Masood was made vice-captain rather than Mohammad Rizwan, the one wicketkeeper within the 16-man squad for the three ODIs.
But Masood hasn’t performed an ODI since 2019 when all 5 of his matches have been towards Australia within the United Arab Emirates. He scored 111 runs at a mean of twenty-two.20.
The interim choice committee, headed by Shahid Afridi, has additionally recalled Haris Sohail, one other left-handed batter. He has 1685 runs in 42 ODIs, however hasn’t featured since October 2020 towards Zimbabwe.
Two uncapped middle-order batsmen, Tayyab Tahir and Kamran Ghulam, have been picked after prolific scoring on the home circuit.
Despite a poor Test season at dwelling, Pakistan carried out effectively in white-ball cricket, reaching the T20 World Cup last in Australia and qualifying for the Twenty20 last of the Asia Cup.
“We know we can carry our momentum in white-ball cricket because we are back to our strength in bowling,” Babar stated.
Haris Rauf has recovered from a quadricep damage picked up throughout his debut check towards England final month to affix different quick bowlers Naseem Shah, Mohammad Wasim, Shahnawaz Dahani and Mohammad Hasnain within the squad.
The ODI on Monday — all three are in Karachi — would be the first between Pakistan and New Zealand for the reason that 2019 World Cup in England.
Kane Williamson, who stepped down from the New Zealand Test captaincy earlier than the tour to Pakistan, will return to steer the ODI facet.
Then he’ll move the captaincy to Tom Latham for the ODI sequence in India.
Fast bowler Adam Milne was withdrawn from the sequence on account of considerations about his preparation, and Blair Tickner, who was a part of New Zealand’s Test squad, has been retained.
New Zealand have flown in three white-ball specialists — opening batter Finn Allen, quick bowler Lockie Ferguson and left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner.
