Pakistan name Haider Ali & Sarfaraz Ahmed in 29-man squad for England tour

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Last Updated on 5 years by Charbel Coorey

Pakistan name Haider Ali & Sarfaraz Ahmed in 29-man squad for England tour | Highly-rated Haider Ali picked in Pakistan squad for tour of England

The Pakistan cricket team named a huge squad for the upcoming tour of England, consisting of 29 players which will play three Tests and as many T20Is.

The team will be led by Babar Azam in the shortest format and by Azhar Ali in the Tests. The entire squad will stay together for the full duration of the series, due to the quarantine periods and Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) to be followed as cricket comes back after the COVID-19 break.

Fast bowler Sohail Khan has been included in the Test squad after a gap of four years. His last appearance in red ball internationals came way back in 2016, during the England tour. Khan picked 22 wickets in nine matches in the Quaid-E-Azam trophy, but the statistics don’t entirely reflect the quality of his performance.

Misbah-ul-Haq, the head coach and selector of Pakistan confirmed this, starting “The selectors also felt he bowled much better in the 2019-20 domestic season than his figures reflected.”

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Haider Ali, who was impressive in the ICC U-19 World Cup earlier this year, gets his debut call-up as the 19 year old is fast tracked into the senior side. While plying his trade for Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League soon after the World Cup, he scored 239 runs at a strike rate of 159. In his inaugural First Class season, Haider scored 645 runs in the Quaid E Azam trophy at an average close to 50.

“The players have also been selected with one eye on the future. I want these players to acquire as much cricket knowledge as possible from the additional backroom staff of Mushtaq Ahmed and Younis Khan that can help them post the England tour,” said Misbah, the former Pakistan captain.

Mushtaq Ahmed and Younis Khan have been named as spin bowling consultant and batting coach for the England tour.

“The selectors have picked a squad which gives us the best chance of success in England,” Misbah said. “It was a challenging process as the players have not played for an extended period of time, but nevertheless, with the month that we will have in England and the intense training we will undergo, we are confident we will get the players up to the mark to be ready for the three Tests.

Pakistan name Haider Ali & Sarfaraz Ahmed in 29-man squad for England tour | Highly-rated Haider Ali picked in Pakistan squad for tour of England
Coach Misbah-ul-Haq is focusing on Test cricket.

The squad also includes the likes of Kashif Bhatti, Fawad Alam and the regulars. Former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed has been included as the back keeper to Mohammad Rizwan in the squad. Four players, namely Bilal Asif, Imran Butt, Musa Khan and Mohammad Nawaz are added as cover if any of the members fail COVID-19 testing.

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“Our second-best option is still Sarfaraz and this is why we have kept him as back-up for this lengthy tour. He was dropped because of poor form but the cricket he has played afterwards, the pressure has been eased now. He had an added pressure on him as captain but Sarfaraz has a good record in England as keeper. With a lengthy tour and the 29-man squad, we needed two keepers, with Rizwan already playing.

We always judge them in terms of runs, which isn’t actually the way to go. In England, keeping isn’t easy at all and when you pick a player, we look for many aspects and at this very important tour you can’t really take a chance on a younger player. It’s relatively easy to try out younger options at home but on overseas tours, you must have a solid option on the bench.”

Pakistan is the second team to tour England after West Indies, who have already landed in England and are due to play three Tests. Misbah reiterated that the focus will remain on the Tests which are part of the World Test Championship.

“The main focus of the selectors has been red-ball cricket, which we will play for nearly two months with the T20Is to be played at the back-end of the ICC World Test Championship fixtures.”

Misbah said that they have to train hard as the players haven’t played any competitive cricket since March. 

“The series against England will be challenging as our players have not played any competitive cricket since March, while the home team will come following a series against the West Indies. This means we will have to hit the ground running as soon as we land in England and make the best use of the training sessions and match practice before we enter the first Test.”

Earlier, Mohammad Amir and Haris Sohail pulled out of the tour citing personal reasons.

Squad: Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam (Test vice-captain and T20I captain), Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imran Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, Kashif Bhatti, Shadab Khan, and Yasir Shah

Written by Sarthak Karkhanis. Follow Sarthak on Twitter today.

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Sarthak Karkhanis
Sarthak Karkhanis
Sarthak is a well-established cricket writer and video producer. In addition to writing for CricBlog, Sarthak has worked with Star Sports, ESPNcricinfo, The Quint, and Hotstar.