The veteran Pakistan all-rounder, Mohammad Hafeez has pulled out of the Bangladesh tour where Pakistan were scheduled to play three T20Is in Dhaka starting November 19. He was replaced by the in-form Iftikhar Ahmed, another ageing all-rounder who missed out on the 18-men T20 World Cup squad.
Hafeez is the only one from the World Cup squad who is not in the squad announced for the Bangladesh series. The rest of the 14 members remain on the squad along with three reserves in Usman Qadir, Shahnawaz Dahani and Sohaib Maqsood.
The Pakistan cricket team will be flying out straight to Bangladesh after their T20 World Cup assignment and will not be taking any sort of break before heading into the series.
Post the T20 series, there will be Tests played between the teams as part of the World Test Championship. The squad for it will be named later on. As far as the coaches and support staff are concerned. Pakistan has kept Saqlain Mushtaq as the team’s interim coach while bowling consultant Vernon Philander would remain with the side till the first match as well.
Pakistan squad
Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Shoaib Malik, Usman Qadir