Pakistan has announced the Twenty20 squads for upcoming Cricket Asia Cup and T20 World Cup which will be starting mid-march 2016. Four uncapped players has been included in the squad like Khurram Manzoorand Babar Azam, Rumman Raees, and Mohammad Nawaz. below is the full and confirmed squad for Pakistan.
Pakistan Squad For ICC World Twenty20 2016: PCB has announced the squad for Asia Cup and T20 world cup taking place in February and March 2016 and there are 4 new players (Khurram Manzoorand Babar Azam, Rumman Raees, and Mohammad Nawaz) included into the squad who have not played Twenty20 internationals for Pakistan. Below is the confirmed squad for both Asia Cup and T20 world cup.
| NO# | PLAYER | |
| 1 | Shahid Afridi (Captain) | |
| 2 | Mohammad Hafeez | |
| 3 | Shoaib Malik | |
| 4 | Umar Akmal | |
| 5 | Sarfraz Ahmed | |
| 6 | Babar Azam | |
| 7 | Iftikhar Ahmed | |
| 8 | Imad Wasim | |
| 9 | Anwar Ali | |
| 10 | Mohammad Irfan | |
| 11 | Wahab Riaz | |
| 12 | Mohammad Amir | |
| 13 | Mohammad Nawaz | |
| 14 | Khurram Manzoor | |
| 15 | Rumman Raees |
All 16 teams competing in the ICC World Twenty20 2016 must reveal their 15-man squads 15 days before the start of the competition. So we can expect every team to announce their squads by the third week of February 2016. Pakistan players will be traveling to New Zealand to play three t20 and 3 ODI match before the head to UAE where first edition of highly anticipated Pakistan Super League will take place from 3 February to 23 February. PCB will be announcing the Twenty20 world cup squad after the PSL season 1 finishes.
Shahid Afridi will captain the Pakistan side which will include some experience and quite a few new comers who dont have much T20 international experience. Pakistan’s middle order depend heavily on the likes of Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi while Ahmad Shehzad and Muhammad Hafeez are expected to open the innings.
Pakistan World T20 2016 Schedule:
Pakistan will start their campaign against team who will qualify through the first round group A. Pakistan’s second match will be against India at Himachal Pradesh Stadium in Dharamsala. on 19th March followed by games against New Zealand and Australia.
- Pakistan vs Qualifier A (16th March 2016)
- Pakistan vs India (19th March 2016)
- Pakistan vs New Zealand (22 March 2016)
- Pakistan vs Australia (25 March 2015)
Pakistan tend to do very well in Twenty20 world cups and since the start of T20 world competition Pakistan has reached semifinal on 4 occasion in 5 editions of T20 world cups. Pakistan played two finals as well, losing first against India and than winning against Sri Lanka in 2009.
As far as their recent form is concerned it has been underwhelming as they were thrashed by England 3-0 in Twenty20 series. While Pakistan did not have much action in this format in 2015 playing only against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Their series against New Zealand is very important but its baffling on part of PCB to arrange a Twenty20 series in totally different environment what players will experience in India.
Predictions: Can’t see pakistan making out of the super 10 stage with the squad they have. Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi has to be in top form to achieve qualification to semifinals but they are too inconsistent to have any sort of impact.