Saud Shakeel Makes Shocking Wild-Card Entry In Pakistan's Asia Cup Squad

Saud Shakeel (Source: Twitter)

Just days prior to the commencement of the Asia Cup 2023, Pakistan have included Saud Shakeel in their squad for the tournament.

Shakeel will replace Tayyab Tahir, who did not even get a chance in the Afghanistan series and is yet to debut in the ODI format. Tahir will now be with the team as a travelling reserve.

Notably, Shakeel earlier was called up only for the ODI assignment versus Afghanistan. He did not get to play the first two fixtures and found a spot in the playing XI as a middle-order batter in the final ODI of the series.

While batting at number five, he scored two boundaries but was dismissed in an unfortunate manner via a run-out.

Shakeel's selection is mainly caused by Pakistan's middle-order worries which got even more magnified after their horror show in the second ODI of the series against Afghanistan.

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The 27-year-old has not been able to show his A game in his brief ODI career so far. He has accumulated just 76 runs in five innings at an average and strike-rate 19 and 71.03 respectively.

However, the left-hander has been tremendous in his performance in the Test arena where he scores 87.5 runs per innings.

The Pakistani team, excluding a few players, will arrive in Multan tomorrow where they will play Asia Cup opener against Nepal on August 30.

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