By Asghar Ali Mubarak
Islambad: The three struggling sides in the First XI National T20 Cup – Balochistan, Central Punjab and Southern Punjab – have revisited their team combinations for the second round action, which begins at the Pindi Cricket Stadium from Friday, 9 October.
While table-toppers Northern, second-placed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and fourth-placed Sindh have decided to move to Rawalpindi with unchanged sides, the remaining three sides have opted to include high-performing players from the Second XI National T20 Cup as they hope these changes will also result in changes to their fortunes.
Balochistan have added Quetta-born 17-year-old Abdul Wahid Bangalzai following his consistent run with the bat in the Second XI tournament. Abdul Wahid, who also represented Pakistan in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2020, has replaced Imran Farhat.
Abdul Wahid Bangalzai scored 18, 73, 19, 90 and 35 in his five matches for Balochistan. In contrast, Imran Farhat managed only 19 runs in his two outings in Multan.
Southern Punjab, yet to win a match in the First XI tournament, have decided to replace Bilawal Bhatti, Mohammad Irfan and Rahat Ali with Dilbar Hussain, Mohammad Imran and Zain Abbas.
Dilbar has taken five wickets at an economy-rate of just over seven. Imran has bagged six wickets at an economy-rate of 7, while Zain Abbas is their leading run-scorer with 193 runs.
Bilawal has been wicketless in Multan, while Irfan and Rahat’s three wickets apiece came at economy-rates of over 8.8 and 10, respectively.
Central Punjab, who are placed fifth on the points table of the six-team tournament, have brought in top-order batsman Mohammad Akhlaq in place of off-spinner Bilal Asif, who has taken one wicket in two matches at an economy-rate of just under 11. Akhlaq, on the contrary, has scored 176 runs in his side’s four Second XI National T20 Cup matches with three half-centuries.
Squads (for second round matches):
Balochistan – Haris Sohail (captain), Bismillah Khan (vice-captain, wicketkeeper), Abdul Wahid Bangalzai Akbar-ur-Rehman, Akif Javed, Ammad Butt, Awais Zia, Imam-ul-Haq, Imran Butt, Kashif Bhatti, Khurram Shahzad, Taimur Khan, Umaid Asif, Umar Gul, Usama Mir and Yasir Shah.
Central Punjab – Babar Azam (captain), Saad Nasim (vice-captain), Abdullah Shafiq, Abid Ali, Ahmed Bashir, Ali Shan, Ehsan Adil, Irfan Khan Niazi, Kamran Akmal (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Akhlaq, Naseem Shah, Qasim Akram, Rizwan Hussain, Sohaibullah, Usman Qadir and Zafar Gohar.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – Mohammad Rizwan (captain, wicketkeeper), Junaid Khan (vice-captain), Arshad Iqbal, Asif Afridi, Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imran Khan Snr, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Mohsin, Sahibzada Farhan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Usman Khan Shinwari, Wahab Riaz and Zohaib Khan.
Northern – Imad Wasim (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Ali Imran, Asif Ali, Farzan Raja, Haider Ali, Hammad Azam, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Nawaz, Musa Khan, Rohail Nazir (wicketkeeper), Sohail Akhtar, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Amin and Zeeshan Malik
Sindh – Sarfaraz Ahmed (captain, wicketkeeper), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Ahsan Ali, Anwar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Azam Khan, Danish Aziz, Ghulam Mudassir, Hassan Khan, Khurram Manzoor, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Asghar, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Taha, Sharjeel Khan and Sohail Khan.
Southern Punjab – Shan Masood (captain), Hussain Talat (vice-captain), Aamir Yamin, Ali Shafiq, Dilbar Hussain, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ilyas, Mohammad Imran, Saif Baddar, Sohaib Maqsood, Umer Khan, Umar Siddiq Khan, Zahid Mehmood, Zain Abbas and Zeeshan Ashraf (wicketkeeper)
